


New Dawn

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Series: The Twilight Storm [16]
Category: Doctor Who, Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-08
Updated: 2020-04-08
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:01:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 29,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23548846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: An unexpected reunion leaves Bella facing a personal choice as she and the Doctor confront the consequences of their past actions.
Relationships: Edward Cullen/Bella Swan, Tenth Doctor & Bella Swan
Series: The Twilight Storm [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694503
Kudos: 17





	1. Meeting the Past

**Author's Note:**

> To those wondering, as this story begins the Doctor is leaving the planet Esselven, a world in the thirty-sixth century whose ruling family were saved from a complex temporal anomaly and a ruthless dictator by the Sixth Doctor in the novel "Palace of the Red Sun"; it's a particular favourite and I wanted to include some reference to it before this series ended

"Wow," I said, looking at the Doctor with a broad grin as we returned to the TARDIS after our last trip, which was also one of those rare occasions where everything went as the Doctor had planned. "That whole place was just… _wow_."

"Glad you liked it," the Doctor smiled at me.

"Liked it?" I repeated incredulously. "What's not to like about a chance to have a meal with the king of an entire _planet_? And when you knew the chancellor… I still can't believe that was a _robot_!"

"Oh, Greeneight's been through a lot since I met him; back at the start he had trouble telling a standard Red Sector where it should go even when he knew it was wrong, and now he's making decisions that affect the whole planet," the Doctor smiled at me. "Still, that's what happens when you spend over two hundred years working on the largest gardens in history; you have a lot of time to think about what you'll do long-term."

"And it's all still there…" I smiled as I remembered the apparently small planet we'd just departed. The people had been nice, but the trip had mainly made an impression because of the planet itself, which was easily one of the most beautiful I'd ever seen in my travels with the Doctor. "They really kept it that way after everything they went through?"

"It was their home for centuries; it wasn't always an easy life, but you grow attached to somewhere after you spend that long on it, particularly when it was intended as a holiday home for the royal family anyway," the Doctor shrugged. "I actually had that problem myself once; was stuck on Orbis for a few decades in my eighth body and had trouble getting back into the swing of things for a while after I was let out into the wider universe, even if Orbis was fairly dull…"

The Doctor's speech was cut short when the TARDIS suddenly came to a halt, leaving the two of us to exchange glances before the Doctor went to study the TARDIS 'yearometer'; even I'd been here long enough to know that the TARDIS didn't normally take that little time to go from one destination to another when it was on random.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, as the Doctor looked uncertainly at the screen.

"Actually… we're just back on Earth."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with Earth-"

"Pretty much on the day we first met, actually," the Doctor finished, looking at me with a stare that had a new sense of uncertainty behind it I'd never seen from my friend. "We're in Mexico at the moment and it's a few hours later anyway, so there's no risk of paradox, but… well…"

"Oh," I said, guessing what the Doctor wasn't saying to me and wondering whether or not I should answer that.

On the one hand, I had been thinking that I'd learned enough from my time with him, but on the other hand, did I really want to leave just because we were in a convenient place? The Doctor's piloting skills weren't perfect, but he could get me home the _moment_ I left if I wanted to go back…

"Well," I smiled at him, lost for anything better to say in this awkward moment, "since I've never been to Mexico, shall we just take a look around before we go?"

"No harm in that," the Doctor said, opening the TARDIS door. As I stepped out of the ship, I found that we were in a shaded alleyway looking out on a quiet street, the buildings around me high while still fairly similar to what I'd seen back in America, apart from cooler tones for the various building materials.

As I took in my surroundings, wondering if I should be impressed or disappointed that this was just my present, my train of thought was suddenly interrupted when something hit me with such force that I was amazed nothing was broken. For a moment I thought I was being attacked, but then I recognised the feel of the body that was suddenly holding me and realised what was happening.

" _Alice_?" I said, stepping back to look at the shortest Cullen in shock. "What are-?"

"How aren't you dead?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused at the blunt question; I knew that the Cullens had wanted me out of their lives, but that seemed a bit harsh-

"You _vanished_!" Alice insisted, looking at me in confusion. "I saw you jump; why would you try and kill yourself?"

"When I… I was cliff-jumping," I clarified, realising what Alice must be referring to as I let out an awkward little laugh; after so long with the Doctor, that particular experience was almost amusing, so long as I didn't think about the embarrassing parts of it at the same time. "It… was meant to be fun, but it… didn't work out like I'd-"

"I saw _that_ , but I also saw you _vanish_!" Alice interjected, still shaken at the sight of me. "I thought you were _dead_ ; what happened to you? I was going to go back and see for myself, but then I just… I felt as though I'd get the answers if I stayed _here_ , and then… it's only been a few hours since you jumped, how could you-?"

"How did you see that?" I cut in. "Edward said he'd asked you to make a clean break-!"

"Just because I wasn't looking doesn't mean I'm not still attuned to you," Alice clarified, before she looked at me for a moment as her expression became confused. "Or at least, I _was_ attuned to you… I can't quite see what's coming…"

"Oh, that'd be me," the Doctor cut in, stepping forward to look between Alice and I with a curious smile. "I take it this is Alice, right; the Cullen who can see the future?"

"You _told_ him?" Alice asked, looking at me with a sense of betrayal in her eyes.

"Hey, the Doctor isn't exactly normal either-" I began, before I rolled my eyes and grabbed Alice by the sleeve, thoughts of looking around Mexico put aside in favour of explaining the situation to Alice. "Come on; we need to talk."

"What-?" the Doctor and Alice said almost at once before I opened the TARDIS door and led Alice inside, the smallest Cullen staring at the ship's interior in shock as the Doctor shot me a pointed stare.

"Didn't we have a discussion about inviting people into my ship without my permission?"

"I trust Alice, Doctor," I countered.

"I… sorry, but what is… and who's _this_?" Alice interjected, looking at the Doctor in confusion before she sniffed and her eyes widened in shock. "Hold on; _two_ hearts… and what is that smell…?"

" _Don't_ ," I said, looking coldly at Alice; we might have 'tweaked' the genetic memory of Alice's breed of vampire, but that didn't mean that there wasn't some kind of deeper instinct in there to act against the Doctor's race.

"To answer your first question first, the fact that you didn't see Bella survive that cliff is probably my fault," the Doctor explained nonchalantly. "I learned a couple of lifetimes back that I'm a natural 'rogue element', in that I throw off usual laws of cause and effect and make it harder for anyone who can see the future to predict what's going to happen once I get involved."

"Really?" Alice looked at my friend, clearly grateful to be getting answers to something even if she was still troubled by the bigger question. "And… how does that effect Bella?"

"Oh, the same people revealed that when I take on companions I essentially 'contaminate' them with the same thing that makes it hard for anyone to predict what I'll do," the Doctor elaborated. "Nothing dangerous, I assure you; Bella's just spent so much time with me it's probably hard for you to see what she'll do any more."

"I… see," Alice said, looking between the Doctor and I in confusion. "And… you've been this… contaminated by him… when you've only known him for a few hours?"

"That's… a very complicated question to answer," I said at last, not wanting to give away too many of the Doctor's secrets too quickly. "For now, let's just say that the Doctor saved my life from that… incident… and leave it at that."

"All right," Alice said, looking at me with a grim shake of her head. "He was a fool to think you'd survive alone; I've never met anyone so prone to life-threatening idiocy-"

"Actually, I've been doing all right," I countered; as much as I was grateful to see Alice again, I wasn't going to stand for being treated like a completely useless idiot. "The Doctor and I have been through a few… close calls… since I met him, and as you can see, I'm still here."

"And that wasn't all just me stepping in," the Doctor added with a smile. "Seriously, you'd be amazed at what-"

Alice suddenly reeled backwards, clutching at her head with an expression that I would have called pain on anyone else if I didn't know that vampires couldn't get headaches or anything like that. I stepped forward to try and get her attention, but before I could try anything Alice had turned and practically slammed her hands down on the control console, staring upwards at the ceiling.

"Uh… what's happening?" I asked, glancing over at the Doctor after I was fairly sure that neither Alice or the TARDIS were actually attacking each other.

"I'm not… entirely sure," the Doctor admitted as he looked uncertainly at Alice. "The TARDIS has enhanced human mental abilities before; an old friend of an old companion once had his telepathy triggered just because he followed me to the ship, as an example."

"Humans can be telepathic?"

"With the right circumstances to set it all off; the odds of humans developing that level of power on their own are rather rare," the Doctor clarified, even as he continued to study Alice thoughtfully. "I'm just not sure what she'd do to a precognitive vampire; she's been around you long enough to have picked up on your memories and understand that Alice won't hurt anyone, but my last encounters with vampires have never worked out well…"

I was saved from further questions when Alice's eyes snapped open as the TARDIS's central column began to move.

"You have to help me," she looked urgently at the Doctor. "If we don't keep going now, Edward's going to die!"


	2. Saving Edward Cullen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Events here are a bit rushed, but you can attribute that to the TARDIS not being entirely comfortable making it easy for the Doctor to save a vampire, particularly not one that hurt a companion like Edward hurt Bella

"He'll _die_?" the Doctor and I said virtually at once.

"How?" I asked, once I'd glanced over at the Doctor and he'd confirmed that he preferred me to ask the questions; he might be the more experienced in a crisis, but he was deferring to my friendship with Alice and recognising that I'd be the better choice to get answers. "I mean, I know you can be killed, but what would-?"

"He thinks you're dead and he's going to the Volturi to ask them to kill him," Alice said. "I don't know how he found out or what he thinks happened if you're here, but-"

"Oh God," I said, looking at the Doctor in horror. "If Charlie and Jacob don't know where I am…"

"It can't just be that," the Doctor corrected. "I get that Edward's apparently stuck as a teenager, but he'd still need some kind of evidence if he's doing something this extreme; you vanishing doesn't mean you're dead necessarily-"

" _Harry_!" I snapped my fingers in recollection.

"Harry Clearwater?" Alice asked. "What about him?"

"He had a fatal heart attack the day I met the Doctor," I explained. "The funeral couldn't have been more than a few days after I left with the Doctor; maybe Edward somehow heard about a funeral and assumed it was _my_ funeral?"

"That… could work…" Alice nodded uncertainly. "I spoke with Jasper before I went off after my last vision… if he told Edward, or told someone else who _then_ told Edward…"

"It's all guesswork, but it makes as much sense as anything we're likely to come up with right now," the Doctor noted, before glancing at the TARDIS console as the central column stopped moving. "And speaking of things making sense…"

His voice trailed off as he walked over to study a particular panel on the console for a moment before turning to Alice. "I assume that the Volturi live in Volterra?"

"Yes…" Alice said, looking suspiciously at the Doctor. "How do you know that?"

"Bit of a guess, but it's helped by the fact that we're there now," the Doctor explained as he patted the console. "The circuits picked up on your vision and anxiety over Edward, and took us to where we needed to be."

"Needed to be?"

"Alice," I said, deciding that now was as good a time as any to tell her at least one of the Doctor's secrets, "this is a time machine."

Alice blinked.

"…Pardon?" she said, clearly unsure if her hearing had just failed her for the first time in her existing memory.

"This is a time machine," I repeated, indicating the ship. "It's not just really big on the inside; the Doctor and I have been travelling to the past and future for months."

"And when you touched the console, you must have interfaced with the TARDIS telepathic circuits," the Doctor explained. "She'd normally need more direct contact with someone for them to influence our destination like that, but I'd guess that your natural psychic potential increased the old girl's sensitivity to you."

"Excuse me?" Alice asked.

"Basically, when you touched with the console while you were having that vision, the TARDIS must have sensed what you were seeing and taken us to a point where we could do something about it," the Doctor explained, glancing over the console.

"So… we're in Volterra?" I asked.

"More precisely, we're in Volterra on St Marcus's Day," the Doctor clarified, his expression becoming grimmer as he thought over that discovery before turning to Alice. "What can we expect? Will these Volturi kill him if he asks?"

"I… I can't be sure," Alice explained. "The leader of the Volturi is fond of Carlisle, so he might not accept Edward's request to die, but if Edward does something to provoke the peace…"

"Such as?" the Doctor asked.

"It could be anything," Alice shook her head. "I just can't be sure; everything's so chaotic right now, it's like everything's off-balance; I know where Edward was when I had that last vision, but I don't know where he is _now_ …"

"Temporal displacement; your gift's probably taking time to adjust to the time-jump," the Doctor stated as he grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. "In that case, we'll have to find him the old-fashioned way; get out and look."

" _Look_?" Alice said incredulously. "We have an entire city to search, I don't know what Edward's going to do, and the Volturi are-"

"We get that they're dangerous, and I'll ask you for more later, but if you have a better idea, I'd like to hear it," the Doctor said, indicating the door as I grabbed my jacket from the TARDIS hatstand. "Right now, someone Bella knows is about to kill himself because of a mistake, and our best hope is that he's not going to do anything to hurt anyone _else_ if he's going to try and provoke these Volturi blokes into killing him, so we need to go _now_."

Looking between us for a moment, Alice sighed and nodded in agreement, the Doctor leading the way to the TARDIS door and dashing out into the sunny streets of Venice. Alice paused for a moment in the shadow of the door, either remembering her own current limits or shocked at the sight of how we'd moved, but the Doctor amended both by reaching into a pocket and tossing her a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and gloves.

"You want me to _wear_ these?" Alice asked incredulously, the fashionista clearly uncomfortable with the style of hat.

"They should stop the sun hitting anything you don't want it to so long as you're careful," the Doctor clarified, before he looked at me. "Are you-?"

"I'm fine," I said, not wanting to get into a discussion about Edward at a time like this; he might have left me on his own choice, and I might have come to recognise the problems in our relationship, but I'd focus on making sure he didn't end up dead right now before worrying about anything else. "Let's just… find him and work it all out later."

With that said, I nodded at the Doctor and Alice before the three of us split up, Alice sticking to a shadowed path while the Doctor and I kept to the sunnier streets, weaving around the various groups of people, streets so crammed it seemed like there was no space for any kind of car. Under normal circumstances, I like to think I would have enjoyed the experience of another new culture and city, even if it was far more local than anything I'd seen with the Doctor in the TARDIS, but as it was, with Edward trying to commit suicide by some kind of vampire royalty that even Alice seemed to be afraid of and no time to work out what we were up against, I was focused on saving Edward's life over enjoying the sights.

As I hurried further into the city, I noted that at least the tall buildings would make it easier for Alice to get through the city without worrying about finding specific shade, which gave me the idea to head for the centre of the town; if there were any open spaces in a city like this, it was probably going to be there, which made it the best place to look for Edward if he was going to take the simplest route to draw attention to himself…

As I finally reached the bright square, I was momentarily blinded by the intensity of the sunlight before I literally ran into someone else in the building. Straining for progress amid the mass of close-pressed bodies, I forced my way forwards, ignoring exclamations of pain or indignation as I tried to spot anything that could be a sign of Edward preparing to do something drastic. Jumping up one or twice to get a better view of my surroundings over the heads of the crowd, I soon settled on the clock-tower at the other end of the square as my best target; it was the largest building in the area, so if Edward wanted to make an impression here, he'd probably do something around that area.

As the clock started to chime above the square, there was a sudden break in the crowd as people stepped away from the worst of the ringing, allowing me to finally see the figure I'd been looking for, standing at the mouth of a darkened alley near the base of the tower. Charging past the assembled families and groups, I made for my destination, screaming out Edward's name even as I knew he'd never hear me over the throng, taking in his motionless form for the first time in months.

In a strange way, the first thing I noted that, while he was still dazzlingly perfect, he didn't have the same 'hold' over me like he had before I'd started to travel with the Doctor. Once that moment of personal revelation had passed, however, I noticed that his eyes had deep purple rings under them, lids closed and a relaxed, almost peaceful expression on his face, as though he was just dreaming.

The fact that his shirt was lying on the ground next to him, however, made it clear what he was about to do.

As he stepped forward, I charged towards him; no matter what I thought about our relationship now, no matter what he'd done to me before I met the Doctor, I had no desire to see Edward die. As he raised his foot to take the step that would put him in the sunlight, I crashed into him with such force that it would have hurled us both to the ground if he hadn't caught me.

As the clock finished tolling, his eyes opened and he looked at me with quiet surprise.

"Amazing," he said, his voice full of wonder. "Carlisle was right-"

"Get out of the sun, you _idiot_!" I yelled, stepping back to slam my hand against his chest. Unfortunately, even as I glared at him, he seemed more concerned with staring at me than taking in what I was saying to him, his hand softly brushing my cheek in a manner that I had no idea how to respond to.

"I can't believe how quick it was. I didn't feel a thing; they're very good," he mused, closing his eyes again and pressing his lips against my hair. "Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty… You smell just exactly the same as always-"

"Because I'm _not dead_ , you _idiot_!" I yelled once again, trying to slap him as I stepped back from his embrace; in the past, I might have enjoyed the moment, but right now it was just frustrating. "If we don't get out of here now-!"

"What was that?" he asked, looking at me in polite bemusement.

"We're not dead, but we will be if we don't-!" I began, before Edward suddenly grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him, arms spread as he stared anxiously into the alleyway, two robed figures emerging from the gloom.

"Greetings, gentlemen," Edward's voice was calm and pleasant on the surface, apparently over his brief moment of believing that he was already dead. "I don't think I'll be requiring your services today. I would appreciate it very much, however, if you would send my thanks to your masters."

"Shall we take this conversation to a more appropriate venue?" a smooth voice whispered menacingly.

"That might be the best strategy, actually," a familiar voice cut in.

" _Doctor_?" I yelled, looking over at my friend in relief and apprehension as he casually walked up to join us, Alice just behind him. "How did-?"

"Alice found me and reported your little victory as soon as you got Eddie here back in the shadows," the Doctor said, indicating the short vampire standing behind him before he looked at the two robed figures. "I take it you represent these Volturi I've heard so much about?"

"And you are?" the man who'd spoken to Edward said, looking critically at the Doctor.

"As Bella said, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said simply. "From what I've heard, I believe this is the point where you take us to your leaders?"

"Heard from who?"

"A few people," the Doctor replied, clearly unconcerned about the fact that he was facing four vampires. "Can we just get on with this?"

"You can take Bella back to the square and enjoy the festival-" Edward began.

"Bring them with us," the first voice said, a certain sneer in its voice.

"I don't think so," Edward said.

"Oh, come on, you're going to keep us out of _this_?" the Doctor asked, smiling at Edward as though he was being told he couldn't meet an old friend instead of the secret rulers of the vampire world. "That hardly seems fair, after all the trouble we just went to stopping you from being an idiot?"

"Indeed," the second robed figure said, looking at the Doctor with an amused edge to its voice. "Our invitation does extend to you as well, Doctor…"

"Very nice," the Doctor nodded, before he looked at Edward with a particular stare. "And for the record, Edward, after what you did to Bella emotionally, you're not exactly in any position to start dictating what she can and can't do to anyone."

"I am trying to keep her safe-"

" _Don't_ ," I said, glaring at him as he uttered his familiar defence. "You don't know what I've been through since we last saw each other, so _don't_ think I still need you to 'protect' me from my own damn choices. I came here to save your life and I knew that there were going to be risks, but we're here now, so let's _not_ antagonise the scary vampires and go along with what they're asking."

"A very sensible decision, Miss Swan," the more polite shadow nodded at me. "Please follow us to more… private settings."

Edward shot a frustrated glare at the Doctor as he put his shirt back on before walking after the robed figures as they advanced further into the alley, but the Doctor simply smiled politely back at him before walking after them, leaving Alice and I to follow on our own at the back. For a moment, I wondered if the Volturi were actually trusting us, but then I glanced back and saw a third robed figure just behind us, this one so short that she seemed to be even smaller than Alice

"So…" I asked, deciding to settle the main question facing me right now, "what do the Volturi actually do?"

"They enforce the rules."

"You have rules?" I asked in surprise. "I mean, I told the Doctor about the rule to keep your existence secret, but-"

"That was basically it, so don't worry," Alice smiled at me, before her expression became grim. "The Volturi have enforced those rules for three thousand years, which is why Edward even contemplating doing anything in their city is such a big deal; they don't even allow hunting in Volterra, they just send their guard out to find food for them."

"Right," I said, glancing over at the Doctor to see him looking back at us, clearly listening to Alice's explanation, his eyes narrowing slightly with a particular edge to them that I decided not to focus on right now.

As much as I could understand the Doctor's issues with vampires, right now I was more concerned with making sure we got out of this situation alive; if the Doctor set out to deal with the Volturi himself, I was sure he'd have a plan worked out soon enough, so it was better for me to focus on a more immediate goal.

Edward seemed to be over his immediate desire for death, but how was I going to tell him that I didn't feel that way about him any more without him going back to that mental state all over again?


	3. The Volturi Lair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, but some parts of this chapter and the ones after it are going to be taken directly from 'New Moon', although I will put my own spin on everything as the Doctor takes a greater role in the confrontation

Amid everything else facing me right now, I was grateful that at least Edward had calmed down and wasn't asking any awkward questions about the Doctor as we walked. He had been curious about the Doctor, looking at him in a probing manner that made me wonder what he was seeing in the Doctor's head, but he seemed to have put that aside in favour of talking with Alice about the chain of events that led her to Volterra, leaving the Doctor and I to walk after them more slowly. As we turned a curve in the alley, I heard Alice mention my 'extreme sports' interest, but this wasn't the time to get into an argument about that particular issue, as I hardly wanted these vampires to learn about the TARDIS until we had a clearer idea what we were going to do about this situation.

We finally came to an apparent dead-end in the alley that led to a strange hole in the street. The small vampire identified as Jane leapt down it almost before we reached the end of the street, followed by Alice. I shivered briefly at the sight of the small hole, but after the Dalek mines, an Earth sewer had no fear for me, prompting me to push Edward aside and jump in before I started doubting myself. Alice caught me easily at the bottom, looking at me with a nod of surprised approval before putting me to the side and grabbing the Doctor, who casually shrugged to adjust his coat as Alice released her grip and stepped back to wait for the others.

Glancing up at the hole I'd just jumped down, I stepped to the side as Edward joined us, followed by the other vampires. He moved over as though to offer me support, but I pushed him aside as politely as I could in favour of moving over to stand beside the Doctor, following my friend's lead as we moved over the uneven stone surface we were now standing on. The stones were wet, and I had to grab the Doctor's arm more than once to stop myself falling over, but I ignored the anxious glances I was receiving from Edward; this wasn't the time to deal with his warped sense of guilt when the Doctor needed time to work out a plan of survival.

We might be in the heart of the lair of the vampire rulers, but the Doctor had once staked the greatest vampire of them all; I _had_ to believe he could get us away from these ones…

I didn't know where the light was coming from as we advanced further into the pit, but I could soon determine that we were in some kind of tunnel rather than just a natural formation. After a few moments of walking, I started to shiver, but the Doctor paused to drape his coat over my shoulders before we continued walking. Edward looked at the Doctor and I with a suspicious glance that I couldn't interpret, but I was more concerned with our current situation than trying to work out how Edward's mind worked, and swiftly decided not to try and probe that issue until someone else did.

Finally, we reached a thick grate at the end of the tunnel, which lifted up to reveal a low, heavy wooden door that opened to reveal a brightly-lit but otherwise unremarkable hallway. Exchanging glances with the Doctor, I noticed Edward tense and clench his jaw, but he continued to follow the black-shrouded figure at the end of the corridor, leading us into an elevator.

As we stepped into the elevator, the Volturi vampires removed their hoods. Felix and Demetri were both slightly olive in complexion despite the usual pallor of vampires, Felix's black hair cropped short while Demetri's waved to his shoulders, their irises deep crimson and their clothes modern. We swiftly reached the end of the elevator ride, emerging into some kind of posh reception area with brightly lit paintings in place of windows, with a human woman apparently acting as a receptionist, showing no sign that she was concerned about being surrounded by vampires.

"Good afternoon," Jane," she said politely, showing no sign of surprise at the motley group accompanying the small vampire.

"Gianna," Jane nodded, continuing towards the double doors at the back of the room. These opened to reveal a pale boy who could have been Jane's twin, smiling politely at her.

"Alec," Jane greeted the boy, kissing his cheeks as he kissed hers in return, before he looked at us.

"They send you out for one, and you come back with two… and two halves," he noted, looking at the Doctor and I with a smile. "Nice work. Welcome back, Edward; you seem in a better mood."

"Marginally," Edward agreed in a flat voice.

"And this is the cause of all the trouble?" Alec looked sceptically at me.

"I didn't _intend_ any of this," I said grimly, put out at the idea that the Doctor and I were dismissed as 'halves' just because we weren't vampires.

"Dibs," Felix called out casually, prompting a low snarl from Edward as he turned to look at the other vampire, the two shifting into some kind of combat stance before Alice touched Edward's arm, the two exchanging a long glance before Edward returned to a more relaxed stance.

"Aro will be so pleased to see you again," Alec said, as though the moment had never happened.

"Let's not keep him waiting," Jane suggested. Edward simply nodded at that before the twins led the way down another wide, ornate hall, turning through a secret wooden door into another old stone passage. After a few more minutes' walking, we reached a stone antechamber that led into a brighter, cavernous room, perfectly round like a huge castle turret, with only a few thin rectangles of sunlight coming into the room from thin window slits further up. The only furniture in the room were several massive wooden chairs, much like thrones, spaced unevenly around the floor, surrounding a slight drain in the middle of the room. A few people were talking in the room, with the vampires wearing surprisingly casual clothing given their likely status if they were at something like this in the first place, but I didn't have time to wonder about that before one man stepped forward, wearing black robes with long hair so dark I thought it was a hood at first.

"Jane, dear one, you've returned!" he smiled at Jane in evident delight, his voice a soft sighing and his movements so graceful he almost made Alice look clumsy. Looking at him as he drew closer to give Jane a brief kiss, I was surprised to see that, while he had the same perfect features as the other vampires I had met so far, his skin was so pale it almost seemed translucent, and his red eyes had a cloudy haze to them that made me wonder if his vision was affected.

"Yes, Master," Jane smiled, looking almost angelic despite her eyes. "I brought him back alive, just as you wished."

"Ah, Jane, you are such a comfort to me," the man smiled, turning to look at us with a smile, only to become confused as he registered the Doctor's presence. "And… I know Bella and Alice, of course, but who are you?"

"I am the Doctor," the Doctor replied nonchalantly. "I'm a friend of Bella's."

"Indeed," the vampire said, looking uncertain for a moment before he smiled. "Well, Doctor, any friend of Bella's is naturally welcome."

"I'm sure," the Doctor replied, his tone coolly formal in a manner I recognised from our past confrontations with our more human enemies.

"Felix," the man said, turning to our hulking escort as though the Doctor's presence was no concern to him, "be a dear and tell my brothers about our company. I'm sure they wouldn't want to miss this."

"Yes, Master," Felix nodded, before he vanished back the way we came.

"You see, Edward?" the strange vampire turned to my ex, smiling at him like a fond but scolding grandfather. "What did I tell you? Aren't you glad that I didn't give you what you wanted yesterday?"

"Yes, Aro, I am," he agreed, moving closer to me even if he still didn't touch me."

"I love a happy ending," the man who was apparently Aro sighed. "They are so rare. But I want the whole story; how did this happen? Alice?" He looked at Alice with curious, misty eyes. "Your brother seemed to think you infallible, but apparently there was some mistake."

"Oh, everyone makes mistakes," the Doctor put in, smiling casually despite Edward shooting a warning glare at him. "Biggest problem anyone can make is thinking that they can't be wrong; one reason I liked Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" Aro repeated curiously (given what Edward had told me about vampires' perfect recall, I wondered if Aro had genuinely never heard of Dumbledore before or just needed time to remember something he'd never considered important before now).

"He's a character in a series of books," Alice explained. "He serves as the mentor to the main protagonist, and is generally seen by other characters as a very brilliant man, but he admits more than once that he makes mistakes just like everyone else."

"I see," Aro, looking at the Doctor in bemusement before looking back at Alice with a more enthusiastic smile. "And you agree with that assessment of yourself?"

"As you can see, I cause problems as often as I cure them," Alice replied, apparently at ease apart from her hands being balled into tight fists.

"Oh, you're too modest," Aro chided. "I've seen some of your more amazing exploits, and I must admit I've never observed anything like your talent. Wonderful!"

"You've 'seen' some of her exploits?" the Doctor asked. "How does that work? You've had people spying on Alice?"

"Nothing as crude as that, Doctor," Aro smiled. "You see, I tend to get ahead of myself thanks to my own little talent; I share some traits with Edward here, although I have limits that he does not."

"And have talents that I do not possess myself," Edward added dryly, despite the envy in Aro's tone. "Aro needs physical contact to hear your thoughts, but he hears much more than I do. As I told Bella, I can only hear what's passing through your head in the moment, where Aro hears every thought your mind has ever had."

"Ah," the Doctor nodded in understanding. "Interesting knack."

"It has its moments," Aro sighed, gesturing at Edward and Alice as Alice raised her eyebrows and Edward nodded. "But to hear from a distance… that would be so convenient…"

The Doctor and I were saved from responding to that statement when Aro glanced over our shoulders, prompting the rest of our group to turn and look in the direction of his gaze. The light-haired new arrival looked just like a paler version of Aro, but the dark-haired man prompted a relieved smile from me before I could stop myself.

" _Marcus_!" I grinned in relief, looking at the vampire who'd been my temporary guard in the timeline when the Doctor had been lost. "You're alive… and you don't remember me, of course," I corrected myself, cursing my impulsive proclamation as I registered this man's bemused stare at me, while the paler one had a sour expression that was only slightly tainted by confusion.

"Yes, that's the problem with meeting alternate versions of old friends; looking back, the only time I was actually grateful for not remembering everything was seeing what Alistair became in the Star Chamber…" the Doctor put in, looking sympathetically at me before glancing back at Marcus. "I take it that you're the source of the tales behind Saint Marcus's Day when Father Marcus drove all the vampires from Volterra fifteen hundred years ago before he was martyred in Romania… which I assume never actually happened?"

"No…" Marcus said, looking uncertainly between the Doctor and I.

"Which must be where some of those superstitions came from; I did wonder how they could have spread like that on a world where the last true vampire died before humanity had developed serious story-telling skills…" the Doctor said, trailing off as he realised that he was attracting stares from the other vampires, prompting him to turn to Marcus and shrug. "Sorry about that; long story that this isn't the time for."

"It isn't?" Aro looked at the Doctor with a nonchalant smile as he walked up to my friend. "I would think that you would understand that I can easily provide the details myself-"

" _Don't_ ," the Doctor said, neatly sidestepping Aro's attempt to place a hand on his arm before even the vampire's reflexes could realise what was happening. "I think we can both agree that whatever my explanation is for Bella recognising Marcus when he doesn't, it's something you aren't going to want the rank and file here to know all about?"

"A fair point, I suppose," Aro nodded, looking at the gathered vampires who were now looking at the Doctor and I with renewed curiosity, before he shrugged and turned back to my friend. "Shall we continue this discussion in a more private manner?"

"If you wouldn't mind," the Doctor nodded back at the vampire.

"Of course," Aro sang, waving one hand in a gesture that prompted most of the other vampires present to leave the room, as he, Marcus and the third man whose name I didn't know headed towards the wooden thrones I'd noticed earlier. Marcus paused to touch Aro's palm before he sat down, leaving Edward with a pained expression as he looked at the Doctor and I.

"Interesting…" Aro said, looking between the Doctor and I in a thoughtful manner that left me feeling uncomfortable, before he shrugged and moved on to the third throne himself. Felix, Alec and Jane remained behind with two other vampires as the rest of the room departed, leaving the Doctor and I alone with Alice and Edward as our only possible allies if things turned against us.

I didn't know if I should be more scared of this situation than I had been in some of my past travels with the Doctor; Daleks, Sontarans, and everything else could only kill you, and it had sounded like even the Trickster couldn't do anything without consent, but vampires, in my experience, could do a lot without killing you if they really wanted to…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering, the Doctor's comment about amnesia, Alistair and the Star Chamber is a reference to the Eighth Doctor novel "The Domino Effect": long story short, the amnesic Eighth Doctor was briefly trapped in an alternate reality where external forces manipulated the secret government of the Star Chamber to prevent the creation of the computer, allegedly to keep Britain strong but really to keep humanity divided and ignorant. It was never explicitly confirmed in the text, but readers have since speculated that the Star Chamber's leader, the Pentarch, was that reality's version of the Doctor's old friend Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, who the amnesic Doctor naturally wouldn't recognise but who he would have identified after regaining his older memories  
> If anyone wonders why none of the vampires present have noticed the Doctor's double-heartbeat yet, I'm assuming that, just as we don't consciously think about breathing or blinking most of the time, vampires don't constantly pay attention to everything they're taking in with their senses even with their enhanced mental abilities. As a result, nobody has consciously registered the signs that the Doctor isn't human because there's been no reason for them to assume he's anything else (particularly since Alice has been carefully _not_ thinking about the TARDIS and Edward can't read the Doctor's mind)


	4. Facing the Volturi

"It takes quite a bit to surprise Marcus," Aro said, looking between the Doctor and I in particular. "And the idea that you have a connection to _him_ when he has never met you before…"

"That is a _very_ complicated story that we'll share with you in our own time," the Doctor said, frivolity forgotten as he stood in a room of an enhanced version of his peoples' most ancient enemy.

"And it is hardly the only thing difficult to comprehend in this situation," Aro noted, glancing at Edward in particular now. "How can you stand so close to her like that?"

"It takes an effort," Edward replied simply.

"But still- _la tua cantante_! What a waste!"

"I look at it more as a price," Edward said with a humourless chuckle, that did little to help me feel better about my thoughts for the future.

"A very high price."

"Opportunity cost."

Aro laughed. "If I hadn't smelled her through your memories, I wouldn't have believed the call of anyone's blood could be so strong. I've never felt anything like it myself. Most of us would trade much for such a gift, and yet-"

"Can you stop talking about me like I'm a rare wine Edward keeps to brag about?" I cut in, looking at Aro in particular.

"Of course," Aro said, looking at me with what I would have taken as apology if it came from anyone else. "You must excuse me; I suppose I became caught up in talking with young Edward here when learning what had become of my friend Carlisle since we last spoke."

"You know Carlisle Cullen?" the Doctor looked at Aro curiously.

"You know him?"

"Only what Bella told me about him," the Doctor said briefly, still studying the vampire leader with an inquiring expression. "Sorry if I'm blunt, but considering your… dietary preferences…"

"Oh, contrary to what you might believe, I find Carlisle's self-control extremely admirable," Aro replied. "Thanks to Edward's memories, I am grateful and astonished to succeed in his unorthodox path. I expected that he would waste, weaken with time, and scoffed at his plan to find others who would share his peculiar vision… yet, somehow, I'm happy to be wrong."

The Doctor and Edward simply stared at him in silence at this statement, refusing to give him an answer.

"But your restraint!" Aro sighed. "I did not know such strength was possible. To inure yourself against such a siren call, not just once but again and again… if I had not felt it myself, I would not have believed!"

Glancing over at Edward, I noted that he wasn't showing anything openly, but there was something in his eyes that I felt suggested at something beneath the surface.

"Just remember how she appeals to you…" Aro chuckled. "It makes me thirsty."

"If you harm Bella-" the Doctor began.

"I have no intention of doing any such thing, Doctor," Aro smiled reassuringly. "However, I am curious about one thing in particular… may I?"

"You want to test your powers on me?" I asked, looking uncertainly at the vampire's raised finger.

"Precisely," Aro smiled. "I am fascinated that you are the one exception to Edward's impressive talent; so very interesting that such a thing should occur! I was wondering, since our talents are similar in so many ways, if you would be so kind as to allow me to try and see if you are an exception for me as well?"

Glancing over at the Doctor, for a moment, I didn't see any sign that he thought it would be dangerous, and even Edward didn't give any indication that he objected to this, even if that was probably because he thought there was no choice. I wasn't comfortable at the thought of allowing this vampire to touch me, but there were a perverse curiosity in feeling his strange skin. Taking a deep breath, I raised my hand slowly in front of me, waiting as Aro glided up to me and took my hand, his skin hard but brittle in a manner that reminded me of cold shale.

"So very interesting," he said, stepping back with his initial confidence now replaced by subtle incredulity until he gained his original friendly expression, studying us for a moment before he looked at the Doctor. "May I?"

"I wouldn't," the Doctor said, his hands in his pockets as he stared back at the vampire.

"Not even if I asked politely?"

"I prefer to keep my secrets."

"If you insist," Aro shrugged, looking as though the issue didn't bother him before he glanced back at me. "I wonder if you would be immune to other talents as well… Jane?"

"No!" Edward stepped forwards, snarling even as Alice grabbed his arm.

"Yes, Master?" Jane asked politely, ignoring Edward as he snarled in rage at the small vampire.

"I was wondering, my dear," Aro explained, "if Bella is immune to you?"

As Edward slipped free of Alice's grasp, he moved forward to place himself between Jane and I, but then leapt towards Jane as she took a step towards me. I barely had time to yell out at what he was doing- whatever my feelings about him right now, I knew that I didn't want him dead- before he was on the ground, writhing in agony from no obvious source.

"Hold on…" the Doctor said, looking between Edward and Jane before he stepped forwards, moving between my ex and the strange girl glaring at him. As he gritted his teeth and flinched, Edward suddenly ceased writhing in agony, but I only spared him a moment's glance before I focused on the Doctor, realising what Jane's power must be.

If she could induce that level of agony in a vampire, what could she do to the Doctor…?

It only took a moment, however, for me to realise that my friend wasn't screaming like Edward. He was certainly uncomfortable, judging by the clear tension in his shoulders and the way his legs shook as though it was an effort to keep himself upright, but he didn't look like he was about to start screaming like Edward had.

"What?" Jane asked, staring incredulously at the Doctor even as her expression remained focused. "How did… you can…?"

"You're not… actually _burning_ me… you just… make me _think_ … you are," the Doctor said, his eyes narrowed in intense concentration as he looked at the small vampire. "Takes focus… but my senses… have been fooled… by _experts_ … and you… just specialise…"

"Jane, cease," Aro commanded, prompting Jane to take a step back with a sulky expression on her face as Aro walked up to the Doctor with a thoughtful smile. "That was indeed… impressive, Doctor."

"Just a matter of mind over matter and long experience; I've travelled quite broadly," the Doctor replied, trying to appear nonchalant despite the awkward expression in his eyes making it clear that he realised he might have just made a mistake.

"I would hardly call resisting Jane's power something that can just be done that easily; I once asked her to use that power on me to satisfy my own curiosity, and the results were… well, interesting," Aro said, looking at my friend for a moment before he reached out and grabbed the Doctor's hand before the Time Lord could get away. For a moment I wondered if I should do something, but then Aro released his grip with a yell of shock, staggering backwards while staring at the Doctor and his hand like a man who'd just had his limb cut off.

"I did warn you not to do that," the Doctor said, looking coldly at the vampire. "There is a _lot_ going on in my head, and even I don't try and dig into that unless I have to."

"You-!" Jane began, glaring at the Doctor before I moved to stand between him and the smaller vampire once again. For a moment, Jane simply stared at me, her jaw clenching in frustration and her smile vanishing as she focused, but it soon became clear that her power was having no effect on me where the Doctor had at least been aware of what she was doing.

"Fascinating…" Aro said, his tone weak as he carefully got to his feet, looking between the Doctor and I with a smile. "A girl who can completely throw off three of the most potent abilities I have ever encountered without even trying… and a man who can resist them all through… training?"

"Training and experience," the Doctor corrected, looking pointedly at Aro. "And I didn't _resist_ your ability entirely; you just can't cope with what I've experienced."

"A _vampire_ cannot cope with a _human's_ experience?" Caius asked with a mocking laugh. "You jest-"

"He does not," Aro said, looking grimly at Caius before looking at the Doctor. "Although I confess to wondering how you did that; I felt as though I was experiencing multiple variations of the same event at once…"

"Let's just say there are many aspects to my mind, and you just aren't equipped to handle them," the Doctor said coolly. Jane hissed in a warning tone, but fell silent as Aro held up a hand while he studied the Doctor and I.

"You confound me far more than I expected, Doctor," he said at last. "And the mysteries of Miss Swan's ability… I confess, I find myself wondering what to do with you both now."

Edward and Alice stiffened, although the Doctor only showed a slight tension in his shoulders; I hadn't known much about these vampires, but I'd told him everything I knew after we saved Esme, and the key point was how the Cullens had broken several rules by leaving me human while knowing their secret.

"I don't suppose there's any chance that you've changed your mind?" Aro asked Edward hopefully. "Your talent would be an excellent addition to our little company."

"I'd… rather… not," Edward said, hesitating before he spoke, each word carefully measured.

"Alice?" Aro asked, still hopeful. "Would you be interested in joining us?"

"No thank you," Alice replied.

"And you, Bella?" Aro raised his eyebrows.

"No," I said firmly.

"And I second Bella's opinion," the Doctor added, stepping up to stand beside me.

"But the potential…" Aro mused, looking at me in particular. "I haven't seen a prospective talent such as yours so promising since we found Jane and Alec; can you imagine the possibilities when you are one of us, and that is without considering what your mysterious friend may be capable of?"

"We aren't interested," I repeated firmly, surprised to find that I meant more than just the offer to join the Volturi.

It wasn't that I _wanted_ to die, but after spending time with the Doctor, experiencing so many wonders as a normal human, I was starting to recognise that there was more to life than my past wish to be a vampire just to be with Edward…

"A shame," Aro sighed. "Such a waste…"

"Join or die, is that it?" Edward hissed. "I suspected as much when we were brought to this room. So much for your laws."

I wondered at Edward's tone; he sounded irate, but there was something deliberate about his delivery.

"Of course not," Aro blinked, astonished. "We were already convened here, Edward, awaiting Heidi's return, not for you."

"Aro," Caius hissed. "The law claims them."

"What, because Bella knows you exist and she told me about you?" the Doctor cut in. "She only did that because of exceptional circumstances where it was tell me you lot existed or someone Bella cared about would be dead or worse; she didn't just decide to tell me she knew vampires were real because she was bored, and I assured her that I would keep _my_ word on the topic at the same time."

"And isn't that kind of attitude a bit hypocritical when you've got humans working for you here?" I cut in, remembering the receptionist we'd seen on the way in.

"True," Caius noted with an expression that could be a smile. "But when they are no longer useful to us, they will serve to sustain us. That is not your plan for this one. If she betrays our secrets, are you prepared to destroy her? I think not."

"I wouldn't-!" I began, only for Caius to silence me with an icy look.

"Nor do you intend to make her one of us," he continued, as though I hadn't spoken, shifting his gaze to address the Cullens as though the Doctor and I didn't matter. "Therefore, she is a vulnerability, as is this enigmatic Doctor. Though it is true, for this, only their lives are forfeit. You may leave if you wish."

"You _really_ shouldn't have started talking."

"Excuse me?" Caius looked at the Doctor in surprise.

"Marcus I know for a fact has the potential to be better than he is now," the Doctor said, nonchalantly walking forward so that he was standing in front of Edward, Alice and I, the attention of all vampires in the room fixed on him. "And while I don't agree with Aro's choice of diet, he at least seemed friendly enough, but the fact that you feel that humans are only worth something when they're alive if they're useful to _you_ … I don't particularly like that."

"And I should care about your opinion?" Caius asked.

"You should," the Doctor said firmly. "You say that the options are join you or die, but I have a third one to offer; you let Bella and I leave this room with the Cullens, totally unharmed, and trust we won't tell anyone anything they don't need to know."

"Excuse me?" Aro looked at the Doctor in surprise.

"Might seem like a risk to you, but you have to start having faith in people at some time; killing everyone who _might_ be a risk must have gotten a bit boring after a while," the Doctor said, smiling briefly at Aro before his expression became colder. "Besides, it's better than the fourth option."

"Which is?" Caius asked with a slightly mocking smile.

" _I_ kill _you_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To avoid any questions, I will clarify right now that the Doctor is not 'immune' to Edward, Aro and Jane's powers; he's just able to deal with them through training he's gone through on his travels.
> 
> In Edward's case, the Doctor has encountered enough telepathic races over the years to have learned methods of protecting his mind from any attempts to read it in such a manner, which are facilitated by the fact that Edward's powers can't really focus on one individual unless he actively concentrates.
> 
> For Aro, his attempt to read the Doctor's memories not only exposed him to some degree of the Doctor's awareness of Time and other dimensions, none of which Aro is biologically equipped to process even as a vampire, but he was also exposed to the Doctor's past incarnations in his subconscious, with the result that Aro is essentially getting multiple perspectives on several events at once, which is more than his powers were ever intended to process.
> 
> As for Jane… to be blunt, the Doctor's probably endured similar or more serious damage than just being burned alive- the Third Doctor died a long, slow death from radiation poisoning, the Fifth Doctor's death from spectrox toxaemia was unlikely to have been pleasant, and his current incarnation has that experience when he was possessed by a sentient sun before Martha saved his life, and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head- which allows him to see past Jane's attempt to create an illusion of pain by focusing on his memories of the reality of it.


	5. Volturi Stand-Off

" _You_ kill _us_?" Caius laughed incredulously at the Doctor. "How do you imagine that would be even _possible_?"

"Simple enough," the Doctor said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his sonic screwdriver. "Tell me, are you aware of the principle of opera singers shattering glass by singing at the right decibel pitch?"

"Yes…" Aro said, looking at the Doctor in curiosity despite the smirk on his face.

"Well then," the Doctor said as he raised his familiar tool with his own grim smile, "considering your own silicon-based structures, have you ever wondered what pitch would make _you_ shatter?"

With those words, he turned the screwdriver on, and the vampires in the room all suddenly screamed in pain, clutching at themselves as a strange black substance began to emerge from what seemed to be hairline cracks all over their bodies. Glancing back at Edward and Alice, I was briefly horrified to see that they were in a similar state, but I quickly calmed myself down as I noticed that they were much less 'damaged' than the vampires in front of us, each just shaking slightly without any sign of that black stuff. For a moment, I wondered how long the Doctor was going to do this as I saw Jane and her brother fall to their knees on either side of the thrones, but then the Doctor released his grip on the screwdriver and raised it up beside his face.

"And that was just a taster," the Doctor said, his grim smile now replaced by a firm stare as the vampires looked at him with what I was tempted to call fear. "Can you imagine what would have happened to you all if I _hadn't_ turned that off when I did?"

"How…?" Aro asked, looking at the Doctor with a hint of fear.

"Long and complicated story," the Doctor said. "The short answer is that you aren't exactly conventional vampires, so once I found out about you I made sure to go over everything I knew about you to find a way around your unique advantages."

"Just because you can-" Caius began, the cracks on his skin already fading as I watched.

"You know, that attitude is one of the reasons I dislike immortal beings; they get so fixed in their views they forget that the world around them changes," the Doctor mused, as though a vampire wasn't glaring at him. "Oh, you were unstoppable when all people could do to you in return was hit you with sticks and rocks, but that doesn't mean you're completely invulnerable now."

"You cannot kill us with that-"

"Who needs to shake vampires apart when your venom is extremely flammable and I happen to have a few matches on me?" the Doctor countered, adjusting the screwdriver to give Caius another blast of sonic energy before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches. "Basic, I grant you, but they'll get the job done…"

For a moment, the Doctor and Caius simply glared at each other, the rest of the vampires in the room studying Caius as though awaiting their cue from him, before Caius growled and moved back to his throne.

"And you say that you do not want us dead?" he spat, glaring coldly at the Doctor despite his skin being completely healed from its earlier damage.

"Ever heard of 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone', Caius?" the Doctor countered, looking coldly back at the vampire's indignant stare. "I could have blasted you all with that sonic burst and tossed in a match the moment I walked into this room if all I wanted was to kill a bunch of vampires, but I waited until I was alone with you and your most 'trusted' followers and you'd explicitly given Bella and I an ultimatum that we couldn't agree with before I did _anything_ to you; who's the guilty party here?"

"And you believe that you can give us orders just because of one trick?"

"It's enough to get us out of here," the Doctor said grimly. "And once I'm out, I have a few contacts with the United Nations who'll be _very_ interested in learning about you all."

"You-!" Jane began, charging towards me, only to come to a halt when I pulled out my dagger and pointed it at her chest, clearly confused at the strange response as she looked at the wolf-handled dagger.

"Don't," I said firmly; I knew that I'd only had the chance to pull this weapon out because the vampires were probably dazed after what the Doctor had just done, but right now I was willing to take any advantage I could get.

"You think you can threaten me with _that_?"

"This isn't just a normal dagger," I said firmly, countering Jane's smile with a firm stare of my own; the fact that Jane had hesitated at all at least showed me that the Doctor had made an impression on her. "Believe me or not, but I actually received this from a world where fairy tales are real, and it was specifically enchanted by none other than Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White."

"…Excuse me?" Jane asked, looking at me as though trying to judge just how crazy I was.

"Bella," Edward said uncertainly. "Are you-?"

"Telling the truth," Alice cut, looking at me with a curious but trusting expression. "I heard her heartbeat; she wasn't lying, and I think we can be sure that she's not delusional."

Despite the tension of the situation, I took a moment to shoot a grateful glance at Alice; she'd managed to show her support without revealing the real reason she believed my story.

"Bela and I have been to some very interesting places in our travels," the Doctor explained with a smile before he shifted his glare to Jane. "And I can guarantee that blade's sharp enough to penetrate even a vampire's skin, so _don't_ move."

"Fascinating," Aro mused, looking thoughtfully between the Doctor and I. "How did such an encounter come to take place, to say nothing of why such… unique individuals would provide you with so fascinating a gift?"

"You'll just have to live with your curiosity," the Doctor said nonchalantly, even as he gave the sonic screwdriver a brief twirl in his fingers. "Besides, take my advice; the day you really know everything is the day it all gets boring."

"So," I said anxiously, keeping the dagger pointed at Jane even if I wasn't sure I'd be able to use it if I had to, "since we've established that the Doctor and I _can_ hurt you, I'd just like to reaffirm the fact that the Doctor isn't going to do anything to anyone who doesn't deserve it; if you leave us alone, we… well, we'll do what we can."

"You'll 'do what you can'?" Marcus repeated sceptically, studying me in a probing manner. "Your friend creates weapons designed to hurt us-"

"This is a multi-purpose tool that I've adapted to keep you all from tearing me apart for saying something you don't like; the fact that it can be used to hurt you is just a detail," the Doctor corrected the vampire, looking at Marcus with a degree of sympathy before turning his attention back to Caius. "Now then, as I was about to say, if you let us go now, along with anyone you happen to have locked up in these dungeons or are bringing along for a quick… snack of some sort at this precise moment, the four of us can walk out of here without things getting any more awkward, and then I can have a talk with some of my U.N. contacts to work out… alternative solutions, shall we say?"

"Alternative solutions?"

"New food sources, for one thing," the Doctor clarified, lowering the screwdriver slightly even as his stance made it clear he'd lift it back up if he had to. "I commend the Cullens for their rejection of human blood, but I understand from Bella that animal blood as a substitute is lacking in taste quality, so I'm not going to expect your entire species to go for that as an alternative. That said, if you'll allow me some time, I'm sure we can come up with something that you can arrange to distribute over a larger area; I have a couple of friends who may have some ideas on that front already, and I'll make sure they get back to you when they have anything."

"Indeed," Aro looked thoughtfully at us. "And we should… accept this?"

"One thing you should understand about me, Aro; I have no desire to kill, but never mistake that for a complete refusal to do so," the Doctor replied, his tone becoming colder as he studied Aro. "Your species kills other sentient beings for food, but I have faith that there is hope for you to change if you're given a chance; let me give you that chance."

Aro and the Doctor stared silently at each other for a moment, each man seemingly taking the other's measure while the rest of us could only watch and wait to see what they would do next, even the vampires watching this silent stand-off between their leader and a man they considered to be only human.

"And we should accept this?" Caius asked, breaking the silence with a pointed glare at the Doctor. "We should listen to a man whose only weapons are a few tricks-"

"You should listen to a man who could do what he says and kill us all," Edward put in, looking at Caius in particular even as his words were addressed to all three of the Volturi. "I don't understand how he can do these things, but you all believe he can do it. If you are all as united in that belief as I know you are… compromise cannot be the worst solution."

"He is asking us to starve-"

"I'm asking you to hold off for a few days until I've had a chance to talk with people in the right places," the Doctor corrected. "You must have contacts with alternative sources of blood you can use on short notice; there must be other ways you can keep yourselves alive without going off and killing people."

"…Some," Marcus acknowledged. "We have… agents… in place in certain hospitals that will provide us with resources if we require blood for our crippled or injured brethren until they are fit to hunt once more; we… may be able to use that for a few days to sustain ourselves…"

"Good," the Doctor nodded at Marcus.

"You _concede_ -?"

"I accept the conditions in front of us," Marcus corrected Caius, before turning back to look at the Doctor. "I do not understand how this is possible, Doctor, but I… see… that I mean something to you, and I have faith that your actions at this time are with good intentions."

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded.

"But be warned that we are not… patient… when it comes to feeding," Marcus added, his eyes narrowing slightly. "We accept the terms for now, but if you cannot provide at least the start of a solution…"

"I will," the Doctor nodded. "Like I said, I have friends in the right places who have some ideas you might find interesting."

"And you will… share these ideas?" Aro asked. "If you disapprove of our feeding habits, why not simply use that device now and kill us all? Why go to all these lengths?"

"Because I don't believe in committing genocide unless I have to," the Doctor replied solemnly. "Your species is dangerous, but based on what I've heard about you, unlike others I've met, I'd like to believe that you kill because you need to feed rather than because you sadistically want people dead. I'm not blind to your faults, but we can all agree that the human race isn't exactly innocent in that regard either, so I won't condemn you for surviving when you only had one palatable food source for your people."

His eyes narrowed pointedly. "But if you choose to survive in that manner if I can provide an alternative… we _will_ have words."

I almost wondered how the other vampires were reacting to this attitude from the Doctor, but I didn't dare to take my gaze fully off Jane as she stood in front of me; I could see that the rest of the Volturi weren't ready to do anything where they sat behind Jane, and that was all that mattered to me.

"I understand," Aro said, nodding at the Doctor before shifting his gaze to me. "And I cannot convince you to accept immortality?"

"He didn't want to offer it then, and I don't want it now," I said, indicating where Edward was standing behind me.

"Death is what gives our lives meaning," the Doctor added, his expression unusually solemn. "I'll support efforts to prolong life and _save_ lives, but… well, I've seen enough to know that your way isn't my way; everything has its time."

"…Of course," Aro said, inclining his head at us before raising his hand. "Leave."

"And those who might have any issues with this decision should keep this in mind," the Doctor said, brandishing the screwdriver once again as I slowly moved back to join him and the Cullens while keeping my blade drawn. "If it comes down to it, I _will_ use this to defend Bella and I, to say nothing of what will happen to _someone_ in this room if I even hear a _hint_ of a suspicious disappearance in the Volturi area before I get back."

There was no vocal response to the threat, but even as Caius bared his teeth at us, Aro and Marcus seemed content to sit and watch, the rest of their guard following their example as the Doctor, Edward, Alice and I carefully walked out of the room.

"That's it?" I asked, once the four of us were in the corridors leading back to the outside world, the iron door that led to the Volturi chamber lost in the darkness behind us and the other end of the tunnel still out of sight. "They just… left us alone?"

"Aro is uncomfortable with new developments and recognised that… your friend… was currently acting from a position of strength that he was not prepared to oppose," Edward explained, even as he looked at me with a troubled expression. "When he could not be sure how… the Doctor… could even begin to harm us, it was easier to step back and allow things to proceed with the Doctor's authority."

"Could you… actually do it?" Alice looked uncertainly at the Doctor.

"Kill them with the sonic frequency I mentioned?" the Doctor answered, indicating the screwdriver with a smile. "Possibly; it's tricky to do it with this thing only, but-"

"I mean… a new food source," Alice clarified, surprisingly awkward for the usually confident fashionista I was familiar with. "Is that… possible?"

"As I said, I know people who may have some ideas on that score," the Doctor smiled at Alice.

"How?" Edward asked, his intense gaze focused on the Doctor once again. "How can you do… any of this?"

"Hurt vampires, block your talents, meet fairy tale princesses, all of the above?" the Doctor smiled. "Just give me a few minutes, and you'll get an answer for some of those questions…"

"Why a few minutes?" Edward asked. "There are no Volturi in this passage-"

"Maybe not, but I'd prefer to talk it over with your family as a whole, and I'd hate to repeat myself," the Doctor shrugged, before glancing over at Alice. "Can I assume you called them before you met us?"

"I… left messages asking them to get back to Forks…" Alice began, before looking at him in surprise. "You mean we're going in that?"

"No sense wasting time when we've got something this big to deal with," the Doctor said nonchalantly. "And besides, I think Ed here would like to get some answers sooner rather than later."

I suddenly wasn't sure if I should be anticipating or dreading Edward's reaction when he saw the TARDIS; he was clearly confused by the Doctor as it was, but how would he react when he learned exactly how the Doctor and I had been spending our time together?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the Doctor's reactions to the Volturi in particular went down well; I appreciate that the Doctor's interaction with vampires has never gone well in canon, but if the Tenth was willing to at least try and show Dalek Caan some compassion after everything Caan had done, he's certainly going to be open to offering vampires a chance when he has Bella's stories to reinforce the idea that some of these vampires just kill to feed rather than out of some sadistic enjoyment of human suffering.
> 
> What plans he has to enforce that rule… well, you'll see soon enough.


	6. Back to the Cullens

"A blue box?" Edward stared at the TARDIS incredulously. "We came all this way for a blue box?"

In hindsight, I supposed that I should have just been grateful that Edward waited this long to voice any further criticism of the Doctor; he had been glaring at my friend for some time, but he had stayed silent while we walked through Volterra, as though he didn't want to attract any further attention until he knew what he was dealing with.

"Oh, it's not just a blue box," the Doctor smiled, as he stepped forward to open the doors and wave Edward inside. "If you would?"

"All right…" Edward said, looking at the Doctor with the most inquiring stare I'd ever seen him direct at anyone before he walked into the TARDIS, a loud gasp emerging from the ship as he took in his new surroundings.

"Ah, I love it when that happens," the Doctor smiled as he walked into the ship, allowing me to enjoy the sight of Edward Cullen, the boy who'd always seemed to know everything, being so completely caught off-guard by something I'd come to take for granted in the last few months. "I take it you like the old girl?"

"How… how is this _possible_?" Edward looked, looking incredulously around the console room.

"Oh, the Doctor's an alien," I smiled at Edward, unable to believe how easy it was to look at him after the months I'd spent in Forks feeling like I was in physical pain at just the memory of him. "This is his time machine."

"Time machine?" Edward looked at me incredulously. "This thing is… is a _time machine_?"

"Bingo," the Doctor nodded at Edward. "I picked Bella up a few days ago when she jumped off a cliff, and we've spent the last few months going everywhere from Earth's distant past to the kingdom of Lorindar in a parallel dimension."

"The kingdom of where?" Alice asked.

"It's where I got this," I added, taking out my knife as the Doctor set the ship in motion.

"Really?" Alice said, looking at it with new curiosity. "So… who was the princess there?"

"Danielle Whiteshore; she just ended up being nicknamed Cinderella," I explained. "Talia and Snow are… well, I suppose the best term would be they're kind of her secret service; they help protect the kingdom."

"Talia?" Edward asked, looking at me as though he was trying to decide what kind of mental state I was in right now. "That would be… Sleeping Beauty?"

"She had a… very uncomfortable time after she woke up," I said, deciding that it wasn't my place to share Talia's secrets even if Edward and Alice weren't likely to ever meet them. "She had to leave her kingdom to escape some of the immediate problems, and then… well, Danielle's mother-in-law gave her a place to stay."

"And she's on a secret service?" Alice asked, smiling enthusiastically at the story she was hearing. "Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are Cinderella's secret service?"

"Oh, Snow inherited her mother's magic mirrors and Talia's got a natural gift for hand-to-hand combat thanks to that gift of grace she received at her christening," the Doctor smiled as he danced around the console. "Add in Danielle's ability to talk to animals and her indestructible glass sword, and they make an interesting group; certainly one of the more original trips I've ever had."

"I even wore Red Riding Hood's cloak when I was there," I added.

"Her cloak?" Edward asked.

"And… that was interesting?" Alice asked. "I mean, I like clothes as much as the next girl, but-"

"It was enchanted to be immune to magic and turned me into a wolf when I wore it," I added. "That's why my dagger has a wolf's head on the handle-"

"Excuse me?" Edward cut me off, looking at me with new intensity. "You wore something that turned you… into a wolf?"

"Well, we were facing an entity who was killing fairies to steal their magic as part of a plan to basically become a god; I couldn't afford to be a liability in that-"

"You shouldn't have been there at _all_!" Edward interjected, turning to glare at the Doctor. "And you _let_ her be there?"

"Pardon?" the Doctor said, glancing up from his current position over the TARDIS console.

"Regardless of how I feel about Bella, her lack of self-preservation instincts should have-"

"Hey!" I said, moving to stand between the Doctor and Edward. "It wasn't safe, but the Doctor didn't _make_ me do anything-!"

"And he should have-!"

" _No_ ," I said, holding up a hand to point directly at Edward's non-beating heart. "I joined the Doctor to see something new, and I stayed with him even when he made it _clear_ that there were dangers out there; he told me the truth and let me decide what I wanted to do about it."

"I was trying to keep you safe-"

"And you think the Doctor hasn't done that?" I asked, glaring back at the vampire I'd once been in love with. "I may not have always _been_ safe, but I've always had faith that the Doctor will do his best to _keep_ me safe-"

"And we're here," the Doctor noted, the sound of the TARDIS materialising coming to a halt just as I realised it was filling the ship. "Everybody out."

"Where-?" Alice began, before the Doctor opened the door and walked out, leaving us standing in the Cullens' living room in Forks, with two very unexpected figures waiting for us. I didn't even have the time to ask what they were doing here before Esme came over and gave me a fierce hug, whispering her thanks in my ear before stepping back to hug Edward.

"Thank you for everything, Bella," Carlisle said, smiling at me. "When we got your message about Edward in Volterra-"

"Hold on; when you… got our message?" I said, looking uncertainly at the Cullen parents. "We haven't sent you any messages-"

" _Yet_ ," the Doctor finished with a smile.

"Yet?" the Cullens repeated simultaneously.

"You're going to go back in time and leave a message for Carlisle and Esme to be here now?" I looked uncertainly at the Doctor. "Isn't that… breaking the rules?"

"Just bending them so that I learn about the effect before the cause; a bit confusing, but hardly the worst paradox I've ever encountered," the Doctor smiled. "After all, compared to the time I worked out how to stop the TARDIS blowing up because I watched myself do it, this is easy-"

"You watched _yourself_?" Carlisle repeated, looking at the Time Lord in confusion. "Your message mentioned that things were complicated, but-"

"Oh, things always get complicated; that just means they're interesting," the Doctor smiled, before he focused on Esme. "And talking of keeping things interesting, glad to see you're alright; Bella told me you would be, but there's no substitute for direct experience."

"E… Excuse me?" Esme asked, looking uncertainly at the Doctor. "We… we've met?"

"…Kind of?" I put in, looking awkwardly at the Doctor before focusing back on Esme. "You… well, the Doctor and I… we found you after you jumped."

"After I-?" Esme began, before her eyes widened in shock. "You mean… after I jumped… when I was human?"

"What?" Edward and Alice looked at the two of us in shock, followed by surprised exclamations as Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper hurried into the room from other parts of the house.

"I told you; we're time-travellers," the Doctor smiled at the rest of the Cullens before looking back at Esme with a more solemn expression. "And… well, we arrived at the cliff literally _just_ after you jumped… and Bella asked me to put you in an induced coma until you could get to the morgue."

"An induced coma?" Rosalie asked.

"Ah, you'd be Rosalie, right?" the Doctor smiled, glancing over at the beautiful vampire with a nonchalant smile that prompted a slight chuckle from me at Rosalie's bemused expression; she clearly wasn't used to someone showing so little reaction to her beauty. "Well, I wouldn't have done it normally, but Bella explained the situation to me, and it seemed like the best way to deal with the issues."

"Issues?" Emmett asked.

"Didn't any of you ever find it strange that she could appear to be so badly injured that she was placed in the morgue while still being healthy enough to endure the transformation to become one of you?" the Doctor noted, smiling politely at the Cullens. "All I did was put Esme here in a state of induced coma where she would look dead to the casual observer but actually stay alive long enough for Doctor Cullen here to find her, when Bella here was sure that his enhanced senses would realise what I'd done and take it from there."

"…I have no idea if that's cool, weird, or disturbing."

"Just think of it as weird," I put in with a smile. "That's the best way to consider life with the Doctor in my view; tricky to cope with, but not always in a bad way, and you certainly pick up some interesting facts."

"Why?" Jasper asked, looking curiously at the Doctor. "Who is he?"

"I'm a Time Lord," the Doctor grinned, reaching back to pat the TARDIS with a nonchalant smile. "And _this_ is my time machine."

"Your time machine is a blue box?" Emmett asked in surprise. "You couldn't get a DeLorean?"

"Not the worst movie in terms of its exploration of the temporal mechanics of time-travel, but they over-estimated what would be accomplished in thirty years," the Doctor smiled at Emmett before turning back to his ship. "Anyway, the old girl's got a few more tricks than you'd think-"

"And on the topic of thinking…" Edward said, turning to look at Rosalie before Esme and Alice stepped between the two.

"Don't," Esme said solemnly. "She feels awful."

"As well she should," Edward noted grimly.

"Oh, you're the one who found out about a funeral and told Edward?" the Doctor asked, looking over at Rosalie with a pointed stare. "Maybe just take it as a lesson on why not to jump on the first explanation as the answer?"

"That's it?" Rosalie looked at the Doctor sceptically, after she was sure he wasn't going to say any more.

"One of the hardest things I had to learn when I started travelling was to accept that I wasn't going to be right about everything all the time," the Doctor explained. "If you jump on the first explanation for everything, you're going to put yourself in some very difficult positions later on."

"Like the one you've put us in?" Jasper asked. "If you left the Volturi alive, that can only mean-"

"Oh, we're not on a deadline until we have to stop being human, if that's what you mean," the Doctor smiled nonchalantly at Jasper. "Not that it would apply in my case, of course, but I was able to negotiate a quick deal with the Volturi to let Bella and I leave in exchange for working on a new food source-"

"A new food source?" Carlisle cut in, looking incredulously at the Doctor. "As in… replace blood? How is that even possible?"

"Oh, it's not possible _yet_ , but nothing is impossible just because nobody's done it so far," the Doctor smiled. "Besides, when I have an ex-vampire working with the U.N. as a biologist as one of my contacts-"

" _EX_ -vampire?" Rosalie yelled, charging forward and grabbing the Doctor by the shoulders, staring urgently at him. "You can cure… you can cure me?"

"Ah," the Doctor said, looking awkwardly at Rosalie. "Sorry, but _that_ was only possible through a complicated series of events-"

"Such as?"

"I had to establish a psychic link with Joanna and trick her into drinking my blood after I'd drunk a vampire repellent that was only effective on _her_ species of vampire so that the repellent would kill her vampire genes while the link to me would save _her_ …" the Doctor explained, looking awkwardly at the beautiful vampire. "Very difficult to pull off at the best of times, and then there's the fact that you're not _vampires_ -"

"Hold on; we're not vampires?" Emmett asked. "Then what are we?"

"Vampire hybrids with a race of blood-drinking stones known as the Ogri," I put in. "Apparently, the original vampires were everything in the stories; you're just… well, the product of an experiment that didn't quite work out."

" _We_ didn't work out?" Alice asked. "How can you know?"

"Considering that Bella and I found Patient Zero and read his creator's files, I think we're qualified to know," the Doctor replied.

"Long story that this _isn't_ the time for," I cut in, noticing the increasingly incredulous stares from the Cullens. "What _is_ important is that the Doctor knows about vampires and has people he can talk to about the whole 'give you a new food source' issue; isn't that the important thing?"

"I have a feeling that… this is going to be a _very_ difficult conversation," Carlisle reflected, looking at the Doctor with a thoughtful smile. "But… if you can do what you say you can… I for one am willing to listen."

"Thank you," the Doctor nodded solemnly at Carlisle.

"And…" I began, before taking a moment to collect myself as I looked firmly at the Doctor. "And we need to decide what we tell Charlie about why I've been away."

I couldn't miss the brief flash of pain on the Doctor's face at that comment, but I also knew that this was the right thing to do; now that I was back in my own time, it was time for me to move on.

I'd just need to be sure I had a word with the Doctor about why I was doing this before he left so he knew I wasn't just ditching him because I wanted to be with Edward…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, the ex-vampire the Doctor mentioned was in the Eighth Doctor novel 'Vampire Science'; she probably won't appear here herself, but I thought you'd like to know where I got that particular bit of the Doctor's history


	7. Conversing with the Cullens

"Right," I said, looking around the table at the Cullens and the Doctor with a smile that I could only hope wasn't as awkward as it felt to me; I'd always expected that I'd return to Forks, but that didn't mean I was fully prepared to face them after the way things had turned out last time. "I'm sure you're all wondering… well, _how_ I ended up with the Doctor in the first place?"

"That… would be somewhere to start, yes," Carlisle nodded uncertainly at me. "Considering that Alice's last vision of you stated that you had just jumped off a cliff…"

"Cliff-diving," I clarified, hoping that he wouldn't ask for more information about why I'd been doing that in the first place. "I was… there was an accident, and the Doctor found me."

"Bella was having trouble with… well, she wanted to get away from life in Forks for a while, I was looking for someone to travel with even if I didn't really realise it at the time, and one thing led to another," the Doctor put in.

"And you haven't called Charlie?" Edward looked at me in a particularly pointed manner before his gaze shifted to the Doctor. "Or didn't you let her?"

"I just didn't think about it."

"You didn't _think_ -?"

"Did you miss the part where the Doctor has a _time machine_?" I glared at my ex, surprised at the intensity of negative emotion I was feeling towards the vampire I would have once given anything to see again. "I was… I guess I was always thinking that I would just come back here on the day I left when I decided that I wanted to come back, but then we arrived in Mexico and ran into Alice and…"

"You can't just go back and get back here earlier?" Rosalie asked.

"Time doesn't work that way… Rosalie, wasn't it?" the Doctor looked over at the blonde Cullen. "Once I become part of established events, I can't change what I know took place; it would make everything too complicated, and that's in the best-case-scenario."

"Best-case scenario?" Emmett asked.

"Worst-case scenario would see the universe collapsing because of the paradox of changing history like that," I said. "If I learned anything from the Doctor, it's that time travel is far more complicated than we've ever thought; we can go to the past or the future, and we can make sure that things in the past work out the way they should, but we can't just…"

"Nip back and tell JFK to duck?"

"Actually, one of my enemies tried to stop JFK dying as part of a plan to wipe me out," the Doctor noted.

"Kennedy lives and you don't exist?" I asked, looking at him in surprise. "How would that have worked?"

"Never found out, to be honest; the date of the Kennedy assassination was… an important date in my own life, but I was so far away it's hard to be sure if anything would have been changed, even if history as a whole would have been _very_ different…" The Doctor shrugged. "Anyway, the point is that changing history is possible, but the Web of Time is so delicate that it's better for all concerned parties to just leave it alone."

"I… see," Carlisle said.

"We're getting off-topic right now," Alice said, waving her hand before looking back at me with a smile. "So the Doctor saved your life, and you decided to travel with him; what did you see?"

"Wonders," I smiled at Alice. "We met the mythical beasts of the royal family of an alien planet, went back to Hollywood in the 1950s, saved Earth from an invasion by flying metal stingrays… and those are just the most interesting ones."

"And don't forget our trip to the world of fairy tales," the Doctor smiled.

"Fairy tales?" Edward repeated curiously, looking sceptically at me.

"The world of fairy tales?" Alice looked at me with a new smile. "So that stuff about Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty was real?"

"Red Riding Hood and Sleeping Beauty?" Rosalie repeated.

"We ended up in… well, the Doctor described it as a parallel world where every fairy tale we're familiar with is actually a real event," I explained, hoping that I remembered the Doctor's description correctly. "Something about how some people are aware of some other realities on a subconscious level, and they end up being reinvented in our world as fiction…"

"So there could be worlds out there where _we're_ fiction?" Emmett asked.

"Oh, more than likely; I know I once stopped an invasion of a parallel universe by one of my old enemies with the aid of the man who portrayed me in a TV show," the Doctor noted with a smile.

"Really?" I looked at the Doctor in surprise. "When was that?"

"Pre-War," the Doctor said, and that was enough to make me stop asking for more information, before he turned back to Carlisle. "Anyway, on the topic of Bella's absence, I _did_ have one idea; would you be willing to back me up if I claimed that I was a psychiatrist who'd been treating Bella for a mild case of amnesia after she had a bad fall while walking in the woods?"

"Could that work?" Esme asked.

"Nobody would have trouble believing that I'd fallen over something and taken a knock like that," I smiled, suddenly feeling amused at the memory of how clumsy I'd been before the Doctor.

"And on a wider note, you wouldn't believe what people will believe at times," the Doctor smiled. "I've convinced Napoleon Bonaparte to listen to me by claiming I'm a member of a mystical brotherhood, had to pass myself off as Zeus to Achilles when I arrived in front of him and Hector at Troy, and even ended up acting as Merlin once or twice; compared to all that, convincing Bella's father that I'm a psychiatrist should be easy."

"It's… not the worst idea in the world," Carlisle smiled thoughtfully, even as the rest of the Cullens showed varying degrees of shock at just how casually the Doctor dropped such famous names to casual conversation, before glancing at me. "So long as you don't mind, of course."

"I was _not_ in a good place before I met the Doctor," I said, smiling in understanding at my vampire near-father-figure and my Time Lord friend and mentor hoping Carlisle wouldn't take this as a slight against his family's role in my mess in the first place. "Charlie would probably find it easy to accept the idea that I needed psychiatric help after everything that I was doing… well, before this happened."

"Of course," the Doctor noted, sitting forward and looking at the Cullens, "that's actually the easiest part of this business; we still need to make sure the Volturi stay on track with my proposed new agenda, considering how long it might take Joanna to put together a new food source even with whatever she manages to dig up from her old work on that topic, which means making sure someone's going to keep an eye on them they'll actually _listen_ to…"

"Us?" Carlisle looked at the Doctor in surprise. "You want _us_ to stand against the Volturi?"

"Not stand against; just give Joanna some help devising a new food source and make sure that the Volturi don't get too impatient by making sure that they know at least one of their kind is willing to listen to me," the Doctor clarified. "I appreciate that it's a delicate situation, but I think we can all agree that sometimes all people need is the right catalyst to make them realise that they have to change-"

"Why?"

"Why?" the Doctor looked at Rosalie in surprise.

"Why should we help you?" Rosalie asked, looking firmly at the Doctor. "You come in here, knowing nothing about us but what Bella's told you, and you expect us to help you just… _destroy_ our entire culture-"

"When a culture is based on its members killing everything that isn't part of it, I think I have a right-"

"Just because you don't approve of the way we do things?"

"I thought you all _agreed_ with a policy of _not_ eating humans?"

"For various reasons, yes, but you aren't even human yourself; why do _you_ have the right to judge any of us-?"

" _Because we created you_!" the Doctor yelled, standing up and glaring at Rosalie. "Because I went back to the moment when the last of the vampire lords decided to create your breed of vampire and I just stood back and let him finish his work when I could have stopped your species before it started… and I did that because doing anything else could have done _anything_ to Bella's personal timeline."

He stared at Rosalie for a moment, eyes brimming with the pain and guilt he'd never allowed me to see regarding a topic that I'd never realised had to be painful for him, before he sank back into his chair.

"I… I can't do that," he said, his tone making it clear he was referring to this for more personal reasons than just his people's history with vampires. "I'm meant to have a responsibility to history… but my people made a solemn vow to destroy _all_ vampires… and I let one of the deadliest breeds of vampire that I've ever encountered live… all for the sake of keeping my friend…"

"I never asked-!" I began.

"I know," the Doctor said, looking at me with a brief smile despite the pain in his eyes, that small gesture enough to stop me feeling guilty before I could get started. "And that's why I did it, Bella; you would have let your history be rewritten because it would have been easier for me than doing what I had to do."

The room fell into silence for a moment, the Cullens looking at the Doctor as though they weren't sure what to think of him.

"The point," the Doctor said, looking at Rosalie once again with a more controlled manner, "is that, even if I had to let everything that's happened so far because of your species happen so that history wasn't affected… now that we're past that point, I can't just leave and let this all go on. Even if I take the moral factor out of the picture, any society that can only exist through death is fundamentally unsustainable, and if there's anything I can do that will increase the chance that these vampires will abide by the new rules, I have to try it."

"You think they'll all change just because you've promised them an alternative food source?" Rosalie asked.

"Of course not," the Doctor said simply. "But they'll have the chance to change, and sometimes that's all anything needs."

"Is it?" Edward asked.

"If a Dalek can say that death is wrong, than vampires can recognise that they don't have to kill," the Doctor said firmly.

"Dalek?" Jasper asked.

"The most evil race in the universe," I said simply. "I'll tell you more later."

The Doctor had already had to talk about one painful topic today; I wasn't going to make him tell the Cullens about the race that had forced him to destroy his people unless it was absolutely necessary.

"I know that I'm asking a lot of you," the Doctor said, turning back to Rosalie, "but I believe that your species has the capacity for change-"

"Do we?"

"Do you?" the Doctor repeated.

"Didn't Bella tell you?" Rosalie asked, looking at the Doctor with something that might have been a tear in her eye. "When we're changed, we're frozen psychologically as well as physically. We can learn more facts, and take in new memories, but who we were at the moment of transformation is generally fixed and heightened… and we're left to deal with those views and desires forever, even if they're impossible to achieve."

"…What was it you wanted?" the Doctor asked, his voice low as he reached over, his outstretched hand hovering over Rosalie's shoulder as though he suddenly wasn't sure if he should touch her or not.

"A baby," Rosalie whispered, her voice so low I wouldn't have heard it if anyone else in the room had been breathing. "I wanted a baby…"

The Doctor simply stared at Rosalie in silence for a moment, before he stood up, shrugged off his coat, and tossed it to Alice.

"I'll be back for that," he said firmly to the smallest vampire. "And don't let anything happen to that coat; Janis Joplin gave me that coat."

He looked over at me. "Coming, Bella?"

"Sure," I smiled, getting up to join the Doctor as he headed back to the TARDIS; I didn't know what he had in mind, but if he was leaving the coat, he was planning to come back.

"What-?" Jasper began.

"We'll be _right_ back," the Doctor smiled, as he stepped into the police box, leaving me to join him as he set the ship into motion. "Now, just remind me, Edward told you that Esme tried to commit suicide because her baby had died a few days before, correct?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, that incident the Doctor described when an alien invasion was thwarted with the aid of an actor who portrayed the Doctor on TV occurred in the comic strip "TV Action!"; an old enemy of the Fourth Doctor came to our world while pursued by the Eighth Doctor, but although he captured the Eighth, the Doctor's companion was able to find Tom Baker and convince him to distract the aliens while she sabotaged their ship
> 
> Just to clarify, Bella currently can't consciously remember the events of 'The Day of the Doctor' as part of the Time Lord security protocols preventing the Doctor recalling his own future and his companions telling him anything about it, so as far as she can recall the Doctor _did_ destroy Gallifrey even if she's experienced him saving it


	8. The Gift

"We're back!" the Doctor grinned as he and I walked out of the TARDIS, a small bundle in his arms as he looked around the room.

"Back?" Emmett asked. "You just… went in there and it groaned for a bit-"

"We went into a _time machine_ , Emmett," I smiled at the burly vampire, as the Doctor picked up his coat from Alice. "We've been away for a few days and came back here just as we were leaving."

"What?" Edward looked at us in surprise, before his gaze focused critically on the Doctor. "We're talking about this, and you think it's more important to… take a jaunt?"

"Well, what's the point in having a time machine if you can't use it to show off once in a while?" the Doctor smiled, reaching back to pat the box with a smile. "Besides, when you have this kind of idea, best to get it all over with as soon as possible."

In reality, it had been fiendishly complicated for the Doctor to time his return just right, but after everything he was asking the Cullens to do for him, he wanted to give them something as thanks for his faith in them, which meant giving them a good impression of what he could do. It had been bending the laws of time, but as he noted, he had gone over everything I had learned from the Cullens about their pre-vampire lives, to say nothing of carrying out his own research, and we'd done nothing that would contradict anything either of us knew so far. He'd even remembered to take a brief hop back to a few days ago to send a message to the rest of the Cullens telling them where they should be (although that had involved a few anxious hours of detective work once we realised neither of us knew the Cullens' phone numbers), tying up the last temporal loose end and leaving us all free to do whatever we wanted from here on.

"Just to be sure I'm understanding this, you came back a few seconds after you left, but you've been away for… how long?" Jasper asked.

"Almost a week," the Doctor shrugged.

"We had a lot to do," I clarified.

"You went away for a week… amid a conversation about trying to change our species' entire modus operandi… and during that time, you… stole a baby?" Carlisle asked, his gaze fixed on the squirming bundle my friend was holding.

"Not exactly," the Doctor said, his expression becoming more serious. "I realised that asking you to do all that for me without any immediate reward was a bit much, no matter how good you are, so I decided that there were a few things I could do to thank you in advance… In hindsight, I should have asked you all for a few personal details before diving into the old girl like that, but once we had something to start from it wasn't too hard to backtrack until we found what we were looking for."

"And… that included stealing a baby?" Edward asked, looking sceptically at the squirming bundle the Doctor was holding.

"Not technically," I said, enjoying the thought of how my vampire mother-figure would react to what I was about to say. "After all, you can't steal something if you're just bringing it back to the mother."

"…Excuse me?" Esme said, looking at the Doctor with a new sense of apprehension.

"Esme," the Doctor grinned at the maternal vampire, turning the bundle in his arms, "meet your son."

The silence that greeted that revelation was so complete I wouldn't have needed to be a vampire to hear a pin drop.

"… _What_?" Esme asked, clearly unable to believe what she'd heard even if she'd allowed herself to hope.

"Your son," I repeated with a smile. "We went back to 1919 just before you jumped, found the hospital where he died, sneaked in on the night that he _apparently_ died, and took him away to get treatment for a couple of days before coming back here."

"But… but his lungs…" Esme said, staring at the baby with a tremble, as though she was fighting the temptation to grab the child before she knew the Doctor was telling the truth.

"Oh, easily treated when you know a hospital in the year five billion and fifty that owes you a few favours," the Doctor grinned, walking over to Esme to return her son, the maternal Cullen only able to stare in shock as she held out her arms. "A few advanced drug therapies, a little tweaking of the genetics, and here you are; little… what's his name?"

"I… I never named him," Esme said, looking shamefully at the child, even as tears gleamed in the corner of her eyes. "He was so sick when he was born… I wanted to wait until he was better…"

"Steven," I put in.

"Steven?" Esme repeated, looking curiously up at me

"He was an old friend of the Doctor's," I explained. "He used to be a fighter pilot from the twenty-fifth century, but then he spent some time trapped on an alien planet before the Doctor rescued him, they had such adventures as making the Wooden Horse and stopping the deadliest race in the universe acquiring the ultimate weapon, and he ended up becoming the ruler of a distant civilisation in the far future."

"Cool!" Emmett smiled at me.

"Steven had his moments," the Doctor nodded in agreement. "He didn't always like what I had to do in the name of preserving history, but he was an important human influence in a time when I was still learning what I had to be; I think he would like having someone named after him."

"Steven Cullen…" Esme mused, looking at her son with a tearful, cautious smile, as though afraid that he would vanish or die again if she took her eyes off him. "I like it."

"But… but I _remember_ ," Carlisle looked uncertainly at the Doctor. "I… I still remember hearing that Esme's son died in hospital…"

"Of course you do," the Doctor nodded at Carlisle. "I told you; I don't change history."

"But then… if he _did_ die there…" Esme began uncertainly, looking up from her baby.

"What _actually_ died was an artificially engineered child created in the twenty-second century, completely cut off from sensory input and essentially just a mindless husk, that I left behind to die in Steven's place while I took him to get treatment," the Doctor explained. "I don't approve of the concept, obviously, but it provided the best solution to the situation; a child dies who was never going to have _any_ kind of life, and another lives."

"And Esme wouldn't have noticed?" Rosalie asked sceptically.

"No parent takes a close looks when a child dies," the Doctor said, his smile faltering as he looked at Esme holding Steven. "At that age, the state she would have been in… and the state Steven here was in when we found him…"

"Add in the fact that nobody would have had a reason to _suspect_ there'd been a switch, and… well, it worked out," I said, shrugging slightly as I looked at Esme. "I'm sorry for just dropping all this on you, but-"

"Sorry?" Esme said, looking at me with a broad grin as she stood up to give me a one-armed embrace, clearly still reluctant to put the boy down. "Bella… you _saved_ my _son_!"

"We… we do that," I smiled, awkwardly patting the normally controlled Cullen mother on the back.

"I don't like people to lose children if I can help it," the Doctor said solemnly. "It happened to me with my own children..."

"You're a _dad_?" Emmett looked at the Doctor incredulously.

"I'm older than I look," the Doctor said, before his expression darkened. "After I had to see my _great_ grandson die a long time ago, I swore I'd do everything I could to stop that happening to anyone else ever again…"

"And speaking of children," I added, smiling at Rosalie as I took a small grey tube out of my pocket and passed it to her, wanting to give the Doctor a chance not to talk about something as personal as his own family, "you might want this."

"What… is it?" Rosalie looked in confusion.

"Your child."

"…Excuse me?" Rosalie's gaze turned from confusion to incredulity.

"We went back to when you were human and… well, we got a DNA sample," I said, praying she wouldn't ask for more. Finding the alley in Chicago where Rosalie had been attacked had been easy enough, considering the news coverage attracted by her disappearance, but we'd had to track down the room Carlisle had taken her to when he was changing her to increase our chances of getting a DNA sample that hadn't been contaminated by rain and mud, and then it had been an even greater headache hovering over Gatlinburg while trying to find where Emmett had been changed so that we could find traces of blood from the bear attack that had killed him. "We had to do a bit of work to make sure the samples were pure enough for what we wanted to do, but everything seems to have worked out."

"You got… DNA samples?" Emmett asked, looking incredulously at the small tube. "From both of us? In that thing?"

"It's a self-mixing in-vitro tube from a few centuries in the future," I explained. "The Doctor filled me in on how it works, but all you need to know is that we put the samples in already, so all you need to do is inject that thing into a surrogate, and it's all sorted."

"You mean… I just… I'll be a mother?" Rosalie breathed, staring incredulously at the tube, held so carefully between her fingers that it might as well have been made of glass.

"Well, you won't be able to carry the baby yourself from what Bella told me about how your species works, but eventually, yes," the Doctor nodded, before he was suddenly wrapped in Rosalie's arms, her shoulders shaking as she tried not to squeeze him too hard. "Thank you… but… air?"

"Oh… right," Rosalie said, stepping back from the Doctor with a sheepish smile on her face, looking in awe at the small tube still in her hand. "Oh god… my _baby_ …"

"You deserve it, Rose," Emmett put in, walking over to place his own comforting hand on his wife's shoulder.

"And… you're OK with this?" she asked, looking apprehensively at him. "I mean, I know I told you I _wanted_ children-"

"I didn't think that much about it because I thought it'd be impossible, but that doesn't mean I don't want them," Emmett smiled. "I was part of a big family when I was growing up; I'd… well, I'd be open to starting one of our own."

"Wow…" Alice smiled at Rosalie. "We're going to have _kids_ …"

"And with the new rules, they can live their own lives," Edward noted, a slight smile on his face as he looked between Steven and the tube in Rosalie's hands. "They can live the lives they want, without anyone trying to make us turn them unless they wish it; they can be whatever they want to be…"

"And that's _always_ a good thing," I said to him, suddenly wondering what Edward was thinking that meant in terms of him and me; I'd gone with the Doctor on that last trip because I wanted to be able to say I'd done something to help the Cullens myself, but I still needed a little time to think before I decided for certain what I was going to do with myself next…

"And that reminds me," the Doctor looked over at the Cullens. "I think we should deal with the issue of Chief Swan learning that his daughter's back before he gets any more worried; I'm not going to get into another impossible mix-up before everything gets widdly-wobbly…"

"Wibbly-wobbly?" Jasper repeated sceptically.

"It works," the Doctor said, before he glanced over at Carlisle. "Sorry to keep ducking out like this, but I understand that you'll need some time to process all of this; could I borrow a car?"

"I'll take you," Alice smiled, standing up to look between the Doctor and I.

"Thanks," I nodded at Alice, appreciating her offer; with everything we'd just given the other two couples in the Cullen family, they might need Jasper to cope with the emotional scope of what we'd just given them, and I definitely wasn't ready to spend time with Edward one-on-one right now.

After everything I'd been through, it was going to be good to see my dad again…


	9. The Wolf and the Time Lord

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, the Doctor decided not to use 'John Smith' as his alias when talking to Charlie because he worried that it would sound too obviously fake when dealing with a professional police officer with clear reasons to be suspicious of him from the moment they met

When Charlie opened the door, I was struck by how stupid it was to suddenly be afraid to speak; I'd just gotten away from a confrontation with the leaders of the most physically powerful vampires the Doctor had ever encountered, and had spent the last few months facing all kinds of dangerous situations ranging from flying alien mantas to a world where my friend had never existed, and now I was scared to see my _dad_ again.

When Charlie saw me, standing at the door beside a strange man, I briefly wondered if he was going to punch the Doctor before he pulled me into his arms, his body shaking as he held me before he pulled back to look me over.

"What the… where _were_ you?" he said, staring at me incredulously. "It's been… I was…"

"Tricky story," the Doctor said, smiling politely at my father as he held up the psychic paper. "Doctor Jonas Taylor, Chief Swan; I'm the psychiatrist responsible for your daughter's treatment."

"Treatment?" Charlie repeated, looking between me and the Doctor incredulously. "You… who are you?"

"Doctor Jonas Taylor; like I said, I'm a psychiatrist," the Doctor explained. "I was out for a walk a few days ago when I found this young woman… well, drifting in the sea."

"The _sea_?" Charlie repeated, looking at me in shock. "What were you-?"

"I was… cliff-jumping," I explained awkwardly, glad that I could give my dad at least a partly honest explanation. "It went a bit wrong… I hit a current… and… well, the Doctor saved me."

"You did?" Charlie looked back at my friend, tension in his manner faltering slightly even if he was clearly still suspicious.

"Oh, getting her out of the water was the easy part," the Doctor smiled at me and Charlie. "The hard part was finding who she was."

"Who she was?" Charlie repeated in surprise.

"She was unconscious by the time I got to her, she had no ID, and when she woke up in my hospital a couple of days later, she didn't immediately remember who she was; I speculated trauma-induced amnesia," the Doctor explained nonchalantly. "I had to spend a few days in therapy with her before she was even able to remember her name, never mind anything else."

"And you didn't notice the Missing Persons' reports?" Charlie looked at the Time Lord in a more probing manner.

"I… get caught up in my work, and I actually work a couple of towns over," the Doctor explained, actually looking sheepish as he looked at my father. "As for the reports… maybe my office missed them?"

"Does it matter?" I smiled awkwardly at my father. "Carlisle already dealt with all the bills; there's nothing more for you to worry about…"

"Carlisle," Charlie said, looking at me for a moment before his gaze shifted to the Doctor. "You know Doctor Cullen?"

"Worked with him once or twice; he treats the body, I treat the mind, it all comes down to saving people in the end," the Doctor shrugged. "I appreciate that this has been a… difficult experience for you, Chief Swan, and I'm sorry I couldn't get back to you earlier, but can you accept that I never would have left you to worry like this if I'd been able to come here sooner?"

"Doctor Taylor," Charlie looked at my friend, "you have to understand that this… I mean, I thought I lost my daughter…"

"I understand," the Doctor said, his tone surprisingly serious and sympathetic for the Time Lord's usual nonchalance. "I'm a dad myself, Chief Swan; believe me, I'd never do something like this to another father on purpose."

"Right…" Charlie said, nodding in understanding at the Doctor before he looked at me. "Bella… if Doctor Cullen paid for your treatment…"

"Edward has nothing to do with this." I still wanted to talk with Edward before I said anything definite one way or the other, but right now I wanted Charlie to be clear that my ex had nothing to do with anything that had happened to me since we'd last seen each other. "The Cullens are… they were in the area, and as Doctor Taylor said, he's worked with Carlisle before; he dropped in for a visit after I remembered my name, offered Doctor Taylor some help in putting together what happened, and it all came together."

"Maybe it would be easier if we talked this out in private?" the Doctor asked, smiling at Charlie. "Bella can wait upstairs or something; I think we can all agree that someone who's been in her position shouldn't have to relive it."

"Uh… right…" Charlie said, looking uncertainly at me for a moment before he nodded in understanding, turning to indicate the stairs. "If you... I mean…"

"Sure," I smiled at Charlie, understanding his concern; he appreciated the Doctor's official argument that I shouldn't have to listen to him talking about my fictional psychological breakdown, but he wasn't entirely comfortable with sending me out of the house. Struck by the surrealness of the situation, I headed for the back door and headed out to the garden, turning back to look at the familiar building with a smile.

My room in the TARDIS had been nice, but even if it had recreated itself based on my own memories of this, that didn't mean it had been _exactly_ the same. All the little details of the room waiting for me up these stairs, such as the smell of the bedding or the view out the window… the TARDIS could give me something similar, but there was still something to be said for the original.

My train of thought was cut short as I found myself looking at Jacob, standing at the edge of my garden, panting heavily as though he'd just run a great distance, dressed in shorts that made it clear he'd just shifted back from his wolf state.

"You're alive," he said, staring at me as though nothing else mattered. "You're alive… you're _alive_ …"

He had come up to me and wrapped me in his arms before I could do anything to try and get away from him, leaving me to give him a few awkward pats on the back before he stepped back.

"What the Hell _happened_ to you?" he said, looking urgently at me. "You just… you _vanished_ -"

"I… went travelling."

"'Travelling'," Jacob repeated, urgency replaced by incredulity. "You went 'travelling' for a few _days_ -"

"It's a bit more involved than that," I said, giving him a brief smile; I'd stick to the story the Doctor was giving Charlie for everyone else, but whatever my feelings about Jake right now, I knew that he could keep a secret so long as I wasn't endangering anyone else. "I've actually been away for the last few months."

" _Months_?" Jacob repeated incredulously. "But-"

"That's… a long story," I said, wishing I'd thought about what I was saying before the words came out. "Let's just… would you accept that things in the world are weirder than even we thought they were?"

"Weirder than the leeches-"

" _Don't_ ," I cut him off, mind already made up on that area in particular.

"What?" he looked at me in surprise.

"Stop calling them _leeches_. I just… I mean, would you like it if I called you all 'dogs'?"

"Us all?"

"Everyone in your tribe, I mean, but seriously, have you ever stopped to think about how you sound when you define the Cullens like that?" I asked him, privately grateful that I was able to get this out despite my earlier concerns that I wouldn't have the strength to stand up to Jacob or Edward like this. "I mean, I can understand that you consider them your natural enemies, but frankly you're just coming across as a racist git."

" _Racist_?" Jacob repeated incredulously.

"OK, maybe 'speciest' would be a better term, considering that the Cullens are genuinely not human, but you're still judging people because of something they can't control and assuming that you can just… pigeon-hole them because of that; it's basically racism when I look at it like that."

"They _aren't human_ -!"

" _Neither are you_!"

When Jacob looked at me in shock at that last comment, I briefly wondered if I'd crossed a line, but forced that down; sometimes you had to be harsh if you wanted to make sure people got the point you were trying to make to them.

"I'm not saying that you not being human is a… a _bad_ thing," I looked apologetically at him. "It's just… my point is, if you're going to start judging something as being bad because it's not human, than you need to recognise that you're… well…"

"That I'm just as 'guilty' as everyone else I'm pigeon-holing like that?" Jacob countered bitterly.

"That is _not_ what I meant; I'm not saying you're a bad person because you think anything non-human is automatically a threat, I'm saying that you need to get over that attitude and be more open-minded!" I countered. "The best man I've ever met isn't human-"

"The _leech_?"

"Actually, it's _not_ Edward, but thank you for proving my point," I said firmly. "I was talking about the Doctor."

"'The Doctor'?" Jacob repeated incredulously. "You know a guy called 'The Doctor'?"

"Yes," I nodded, feeling no qualms about telling Jacob the truth; I might not have those kind of feelings for him, but I trusted that he wouldn't give anything I told him away to anyone else. "He's the reason I've been travelling for months."

"What is he?"

"He's an alien."

"Alien," Jacob repeated, once a few moments had made it clear I wasn't going to amend or clarify that description. "As in… an actual _alien_? Like… from Mars?"

"Yes," I replied firmly. "And before you start pointing fingers and making accusations, firstly, you can't criticise someone for not being human when you turn into a massive wolf when you're annoyed, and secondly, before you start acting all jealous, I'd like to make it clear that the Doctor and I are just _friends_ ; he's way too old for me-"

"The leech was over a century-"

"And the Doctor's older than most of the official countries on this _planet_ ; believe me, there are several reasons why he and I are fine as friends and nothing more," I countered resolutely. "You know your real problem, Jacob? It's not that you're a werewolf; it's that you're _racist_!"

"Excuse me?" Jacob said incredulously.

"Or maybe speciesist is the better term here; you've spent all this time judging the Cullens just because they're _vampires_ ," I clarified. "I'm not saying that you're not right to at least be cautious around them, but you can't-"

"What are you even _thinking_ here?" Jacob cut me off, looking indignantly at me. "What has that Martian done-?"

"Actually, the native Martians look more like giant lizards; as you can see, I'm not that extreme," the Doctor's voice cut in, the two of us turning around to see my friend nonchalantly strolling out of my house. "We spotted what was going on out here and I convinced Charlie that it would be best to let me explain things in case he says something he'll regret later, considering that he identified you as the Jacob Black I'd heard a few things about from Bella?"

"Yeah…" Jacob said, looking uncertainly at the Doctor for a moment before his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed. "What are you?"

"Like Bella said, I'm not human," the Doctor shrugged nonchalantly. "I can guess how you might think Mars, but I'm actually from the planet Gallifrey; is that a problem?"

Looking at Jacob right then, as he looked at the Doctor with near-visible unease just because the man he was talking to wasn't entirely human, I realised that any feelings I'd been thinking about before I left with the Doctor were over and done with.

It wasn't that I _hated_ Jacob, but after seeing how the Doctor had been willing to give his people's most ancient enemies a chance to live because I'd told him that at least some of them would be better than what he believed they'd become, to say nothing of the stories he'd told me about his history with the Daleks where he'd actually worked with them in certain extreme circumstances, it was hard to think of Jacob as a good person when he was so clearly blinkered by prejudice against the Cullens just because they were vampires.

"How's Charlie?" I asked, wanting to give myself something else to think about.

"A bit anxious about anything relating to Eddie-boy or his family, but no more than I'd expect given what you told me about your history with him," the Doctor smiled, before looking back at Jacob. "By the way, heard some interesting things about your tribe from Bella; you really turn into wolves?"

"You _told_ him-?" Jacob looked at me indignantly.

"The Doctor's keeping _government_ secrets; you can trust him with this!" I protested.

"Government?" Jacob looked at the Doctor, surprise replacing unease even as confusion remained an obvious issue.

"Scientific advisor to a special branch of the United Nations in dealing with… let's just call them 'unconventional threats' to the general populace," the Doctor smiled. "I'm working on getting the Cullens and their ilk classified under those rules; I can do the same for you if you-"

"We are _nothing_ like them-!" Jacob began, even as his rippling skin made it clear that he was fighting down the urge to change into his wolf state.

"Didn't intend to imply that you were like them in the context you're clearly thinking of," the Doctor said, looking at Jacob with a brief smile before his expression became firmer. "That said, Bella's right; judging something just because of its species isn't going to do you any favours."

"What would you know about that; you aren't even _human_ -"

"Maybe not, but I'll have you know that some of my best friends _are_ human," the Doctor smiled. "I've been coming to Earth on a regular basis for over a millennia ever since I spent a few months in 1963, and I've never regretted the bonds I've formed, but I've been through too much to overlook the idea that people can't be defined by their species. I'm not denying there are quite a few beings out there that can't be trusted just because of what they are, but on the other hand, even the worst species I've ever met has thrown up a couple of exceptions under exceptional circumstances."

"Like the Cullens?" Jacob asked. "You seriously expect me to believe that?"

"The Cullens?" the Doctor countered, looking back at Jacob with a cool stare. "Jacob Black, I have seen and defeated monsters that would make even the most twisted of the Cullens' race look like fluffy kittens asking for a saucer of milk, and I have also seen members of that species genuinely reject their peoples' most twisted philosophies because they recognises that what their people were was wrong. I'm not saying you should blindly accept them, and even in the cases I mentioned they were subjected to uniquely extreme circumstances, but I'm also saying that you shouldn't keep watching them for the moment when they'll let you down because then you'll just end up missing out on everything."

"They're _killers_ -"

"They have the _potential_ to be killers," the Doctor corrected, looking firmly at Jacob. "If you're going to condemn someone because of what you think they might do, then you should just follow the words of the Wise Woman and get it over with."

"The Wise Woman?" Jacob asked.

" _Kill everybody in the whole world_!" the Doctor smiled, raising his hands and putting on a funny voice before sighing and lowering his arms as he registered Jacob's confused expression. "Seriously, does _nobody_ on this side of the pond watch _Blackadder_?"

"Uh… isn't that a British TV series?" I asked.

"Good enough," the Doctor shrugged, before looking back at Jacob. "OK, maybe you missed my quote, but the point still stands; thinking everything has to be that black and white isn't going to get you anywhere."

"It's kept us alive-"

"It's kept you isolated," the Doctor cut Jacob off. "You need to let people grow, Jacob; my own people had similar rules and codes to what I've heard about your tribe, dedicated to protecting their area from a specific threat but unconcerned about anything else, and with some very… fixed ideas that I'm not entirely sure I approve of."

"We don't need your-"

"Maybe you don't, but I'm withholding it for the moment anyway," the Doctor cut in solemnly. "Bella and I have a few things to discuss with the Cullens later- which you will _not_ interfere with, on that topic- and then… well, that's up to you and her."

Jacob glared at the Doctor in silence for a few moments, but then he turned and walked away, leaving me to look briefly after my older friend before turning to look at my newer one.

"Sorry about him," I said, shrugging awkwardly even as I knew I didn't have to feel responsible for anything Jacob did. "He was a good friend when I needed it, but…"

"Sometimes we don't consider the flaws until they're a problem," the Doctor reflected solemnly, an edge to his manner that made it clear to me that this wasn't a topic I should ever ask him about.

Besides, I could understand what he meant by that; I still wanted to have a final talk with the Cullens and the Doctor as a whole before I told them my final decision, but before that, I also had to have one particularly awkward conversation with Edward.

I had a couple of nagging ideas already, but I had to let _him_ confirm it or I'd just end up looking ridiculous…


	10. Final Confessions of Former Lovers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this goes down well; after all of the personal development Bella's gone through in this series, this felt like the right call to make where she and Edward were concerned, but I hope I found the balance between giving her a chance to make her points and keeping her in character.

Later that night, as I sat impatiently on the edge of my bed, fully dressed and keeping quiet, I wasn't entirely surprised to find that Alice had taken on the responsibility of bringing me back to the Cullens' house.

"Edward?" I asked, acknowledging the need to face the biggest issue in front of me right now.

"He'll meet you up at the house," Alice explained, as I carefully climbed out of my window to settle into position on her back. "He has… a few things to say to you."

"Good," I nodded. "I have things to say to him too."

I tried not to pay too much attention to Alice's smile before she started running towards the house; evidently, even if I was already planning to leave the Doctor, whatever the Doctor had been talking about when he described that 'Rogue element' stuff meant that Alice still found it hard to see my future. After the few moments of rapid acceleration through the woods had come to an end, I carefully climbed off her back and rested against a tree for a moment before looking up at the house to see the Doctor and Edward standing in front of it, a slight edge to Edward's posture that made it clear he wasn't entirely comfortable with my friend's presence.

"Bella-" he began.

"Just a moment," I said, holding up a hand to stop him before I looked at the Doctor. "How's things?"

"Well, I've drawn up a list of the key details I'd need the Volturi to agree with before I can sell this with UNIT, but I'm obviously still waiting for a chance to discuss them with Carlisle and the rest," the Doctor replied. "Once that's done, I'll see if Alistair can help me straighten things out with UNIT, and we'll work out the key response points from there."

"Sounds… good," I nodded tentatively, already making a note on my next move once Edward and I had finished this conversation; if the Brigadier still had influence in UNIT in this time, then at least I'd have a contact in the government who would probably trust me. "In the meantime, Edward and I… we have a few things to talk about."

As Edward shot me a brief smile, I was relieved when the Doctor simply nodded at me; he might suspect what I was about to say, but he trusted me to deal with things myself, rather than Edward trying to take control of the situation immediately.

Moments like that were what made it clear I was about to make the right choice; I might be ready to move on from life with the Doctor, but I wasn't going to move on from the life lessons he'd taught me during our travels.

I just had to remember that Edward wasn't going to physically harm me no matter how angry I might make him…

As the Doctor and Alice walked into the Cullens' house, I followed Edward's unspoken assumption and climbed onto his back, allowing him to take us to the meadow in a matter of seconds. As I climbed off, he smiled at me, even as there was an uncomfortable expression on his face.

"So…" I looked uncertainly at the vampire who had once defined my world. "What have you been doing with yourself since you left?"

"Tracking," he said awkwardly. "Apparently I'm not very good at it."

"Tracking what?" I asked.

"I…" Edward took a deep breath, his tone picking up as he looked at me. "I owe you an apology; I owe you much more than an apology, but you have to know that I had no idea what kind of mess I was leaving behind-"

"So I'm the mess you left behind, is that right?" I cut in.

" _No_!" Edward responded, with what could have been genuine despair if I didn't remember how he'd spoken to me before. "I never thought that Victoria would come back; I didn't see that she had that kind of response in her, that she even had such a tie to him."

"She was too confident to imagine he'd lose, so she never thought about what she'd do if he did?" I asked, recalling some of the more arrogant adversaries I'd encountered with the Doctor; it had been several months from my perspective since she'd been a concern, but a psychotic vampire out for my blood wasn't something I was going to forget.

"That mistake doesn't excuse what I left you to face," Edward said grimly. "When I heard that you had to put your life in the hands of werewolves, immature, volatile, the worst thing out there besides Victoria herself, and then there was everything I've seen about that Doctor-"

" _No_ ," I slammed my hand against the nearest tree, staring resolutely at Edward. "I get that you maybe know more about Jacob's tribe than I do, but _don't_ assume that you can just… _pigeon-hole_ the Doctor like that; you don't know _anything_ about him!"

"He's dangerous-"

"But that doesn't mean he's _bad_ ," I cut him off. "The Doctor might get in trouble, but he always did his best to get everyone involved _out_ of it as well."

"I… see," my ex-boyfriend said, looking uncertainly at me for a moment before he sighed in resignation. "But I shouldn't have left you to face dangers like that; I feel sick to imagine-"

" _Stop it_ ," I said, suddenly faced with a nagging suspicion of what he was about to say to me and concerned about how far he was going to take this speech. "You can't just go through life thinking you're damned and hating yourself as though every bad thing that happens to you is automatically your fault or your punishment or what you deserve because you think you're such a monster; you're _never_ going to get anywhere with a world-view like that!"

"Really?" Edward looked uncertainly at me.

"This is…" I said, relieved at how easy it was to put my former feelings to the side as I addressed my ex, refusing to let him make this conversation all about his own guilt. "Edward, my _point_ is that you taking responsibility for every bad thing that happens in my life is putting too much on both of us; committing suicide because you think you didn't save me is _not_ a good way to deal with it! Even if I _was_ dead, that would have been my choice, not your fault, and you shouldn't shoulder the blame for it when you have your whole family to consider."

"Do you think I asked the Volturi to kill me because I felt guilty?" Edward looked at me, his expression almost angry. "I went there because I thought you were dead-"

"What?" I cut him off, suddenly struck with a worrying feeling about how this conversation was going to unfold if that had been his key motive. "But you… why would me being dead make you do-?"

"Isabella Marie Swan," Edward said, looking at me with a soft voice and fierce eyes, "even if I'd had no hand in your death, I would still have gone to Italy. Obviously I should have been more careful- I should have tried to talk to Alice directly, rather than accept it second-hand from Rosalie-"

"That doesn't _excuse_ what you did!" I protested, cutting Edward off with a frustrated glare. "This is just… Edward, you can't just… you left _me_ , remember?"

"Don't you remember anything I told you before?"

"I remember everything you told me, particularly what you said to me when we _last_ spoke," I told him firmly, fighting down the urge to break down; I'd been through too much with the Doctor to let an old relationship affect me this much.

"Bella, you seem to be under a misapprehension," Edward said, walking forward to brush the tip of a cool finger against my lip, a grim smile on his face. "I thought I'd explained it clearly before, Bella; I can't live in a world where you don't exist."

"What?" I said, the pieces falling into place as I studied Edward, cursing the way things had turned out even as I wished I'd backed off when he first stepped forward.

"I'm a good liar, Bella," he said sincerely. "That you believed me so quickly was… excruciating… but when I was telling you goodbye… I knew you weren't going to let it go, and I knew… even if it felt like it would kill me to do it, if I couldn't convince you that I didn't love you anymore, it would just take you that much longer to get on with your life. I hoped that, if you thought I'd moved on, so would you."

"You lied," I said simply, lost in my own thoughts at this revelation.

Edward had lied to me.

The most emotionally devastating experience of my life… and _it was a lie_.

"You bastard."

"I deserve that," Edward smiled. "But-"

"There are no 'buts'," I cut him off, enjoying the brief shock on his face as he realised how I was glaring at him; he didn't get off that easily after everything else I'd been through. "You broke my heart, reduced me to an emotional wreck, and left me so devastated by what you left behind that I had to leave the entire damn _planet_ so that I could be sure I'd get away from all memory of you-"

"What?" Edward looked at me in shock.

"I already told you that the Doctor wasn't human; what kind of _alien_ would invent a time machine that left them stuck on Earth?" I pointed out, waving a hand to cut off Edward's attempt to ask more questions. "That doesn't matter now; what _is_ important is that you put me through all that just because _you_ decided that _you_ knew what was best for both of us, and then you decided to go off and _kill yourself_ because I was dead when _you_ made the decision to leave me?"

"I already told you, I can't-"

"We talked about that when you were here, remember; you refused to change me even when it meant I was left petrified at the idea of getting older while you stayed as you are, and _now_ you go and tell me that your big plan was always to kill yourself once I wasn't there?" I asked, wishing that he was something other than a vampire so I could hit him like he deserved. "I get that you have all these self-loathing issues and you want to 'protect' me from what you are, but this is why things between us were never going to work out; you couldn't accept yourself, so how could we have had any kind of real life together even if I was a vampire?"

"And if I was human?"

"If you were _human_ none of this would have been an issue in the first place, but don't you _dare_ think that we're in this mess just because you're a vampire!" I countered resolutely. "We're here because you decided that you knew what was best for both of us and did it without asking me for my input; that is _not_ what people do in a relationship!"

"I have to protect you-"

"And _that_ is why I don't want us to get back together," I cut him off with a solemn expression; this part was never going to be easy, but it would be best to get it out of the way before things got any worse for Edward.

"What?" the vampire said, looking at me with a confused expression that almost seemed wrong on his face after I'd spent so long picturing him as confident and assertive. "Bella, I-"

"I had a lot of time to think while I was with the Doctor, and I realised… well, to be blunt, I realised that I didn't like what I was becoming when I was with you," I explained grimly. "I'm not saying it was your _fault_ , but I was just… hanging on your every word, defining myself based on your opinion of me, spent months feeling like I was worthless because _you_ decided to break up with me in the most devastating way possible and told yourself it was for _my_ own good without consulting me-"

"I was trying to keep you safe-!"

"And that's the problem," I cut him off. "I'm not going to deny that you're older than me, but that doesn't mean you're always right about everything. I spent months travelling with the Doctor and he's always been willing to _listen_ to my input when we're dealing with something new rather than arbitrarily decide that he knows best just because he's over a thousand years old."

"He is?" Edward looked at me in surprise.

"His species… has a very long life-span, but that's not important to what we're talking about right now," I cut him off, not wanting to explain regeneration on top of everything else we had to face right now. "I'm not going to deny that your intentions were good, even if you went about it the wrong way, but saying 'I love you' isn't an automatic excuse that justifies everything you did."

"Bella," Edward protested, looking weaker than I'd ever seen him, "you were the most important thing-"

"And that doesn't justify anything," I countered, forcing down the part of me that still wanted everything I'd had before the night of my eighteenth birthday. "When I was with the Doctor, I witnessed a woman try to sell him out to save the man she loved from the most dangerous alien race in the universe, and she didn't even get what she was after; they ended up taking the man and the Doctor prisoner anyway."

"What does that-?"

"It has _everything_ to do with us; how is that woman trying to sell out the Doctor to save her lover any different from me being willing to hurt Charlie just to be with you? I've been using so many literary examples to justify us staying together, but in the end… Edward, we're not good for each other; we're just… we _needed_ each other too much."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"You were trying to commit suicide because you _thought_ I was dead; that's not something people do in a stable relationship," I countered solemnly.

"That was because I love you-"

"Love isn't any more of an excuse than 'I was just following orders'," I said firmly. "We can't depend on someone so much that we'd go that far because… because the worst happens; that's not healthy for anyone."

"Even if I love you more than I've ever loved anyone?"

"But I don't love you any more," I said, keeping my eyes fixed on Edward's as he looked back at me. I saw him shake as he took in those words, staring at me with a look of utter desolation, but I refused to let that sorrow break my resolve; I had moved on from the permanently teenaged vampire, and staying with Edward because I was worried about what he'd do wouldn't help either of us. "Edward, when we were together… all that mattered was that we were together, no matter who we ended up hurting in the process. Maybe the fact that we were willing to go through all that stuff for each other was romantic, but looking back, we were too invested in each other to think about how what we were doing affected everyone else. I hurt Charlie when James attacked, you hurt me and then tried to kill yourself…"

"We had good reasons-!"

"And when does the fact that we can justify our actions stop being enough?" I cut him off. "Edward, I'm willing to see if we can just be friends, but right now… we spent so much time hurting each other when we were dating, getting back together would just be a mistake."

"If this is because you think you're dreaming-"

"It's not that," I looked at Edward with a slight smile; if this had happened before I'd met the Doctor, I probably _would_ have believed I was dreaming when he told me he wanted me back. "Believe me, spending time with the Doctor did wonders for my self-esteem issues; you can't exactly think you're useless when you've saved the universe from a deranged monk who thought erasing your best friend from existence was a good idea-"

"Excuse me?" Edward looked at me in confusion, thoughts of our relationship forgotten in the face of his own bemusement at that turn of conversation.

"OK, the specific details aren't important; just accept that I've dealt with some very unique circumstances and had quite a few brilliant people assuring me I'm extraordinary just because I'm _me_ , and leave it at that," I waved a dismissive hand before I looked at him more solemnly. "Actually, that's the problem; they helped me realise what I can be… but they also helped me realise that what we had didn't work. I had to face some hard truths about myself while I was out there, Edward, and they helped me see that you weren't who I thought you were either. I had this whole idealised image in my head of you as this brilliant intellectual immortal who fought his worse instincts and dazzled me with his everything… and then I saw what else could be out there, and…"

"Is it the Doc-?"

" _NO_!" I cut him off, disturbed at the mere idea that the Doctor and I had _that_ kind of relationship, looking reassuringly at him. "I'm not… there isn't anyone else, Edward; I'm just not… you're not what I want in a relationship right now. I'm sorry if that hurts you, but I'm not going to _make_ myself feel anything; you just… you need to learn how to cope with your feelings in a _slightly_ more mature way before you get into something like that again."

"I… understand," Edward said, nodding grimly at me, clenching his fists and looking up at the sky as though wishing there was something for him to hit.

"We can… still be friends?" I said awkwardly. "I mean, you're not a _bad_ guy; it's just… I'm not…"

"You don't… love me any more," Edward said, sounding like getting those words out was the equivalent of driving multiple stakes through his heart if that method of eliminating a vampire had actually worked.

"No," I confirmed.

It had taken travelling back and forth through the history of the universe with the most remarkable man I'd ever met, but where Edward had never been able to convince me I was worthy even when we were dating, I had finally gained a better sense of my own self-worth.

I'd miss what I'd had with Edward before my eighteenth birthday, but I wasn't going to let that loss define the rest of my life; if the Doctor could cope with the loss of his planet and everyone on it, I could cope with giving up on that.

I'd need to warn the Cullens to keep an eye on Edward so that he wouldn't… do anything stupid… but I had to hope that he could reach a similar point to what I'd come to now. I was willing to try and keep the Cullens as a part of my lives, and I already had plans for once I'd graduated if the Doctor would offer me recommendations, but unless something changed, Edward and I couldn't get back together.

_I've made my decision and my new life is waiting for me; it's all on Edward what he does with that decision._


	11. The Final Goodbye

When I returned to the Cullens' house, I wasn't surprised to find Alice standing in front of it, looking sadly at me as I climbed off Edward's back.

"You're not getting back together?" she asked sadly.

"No," I said, walking over to give Alice a quick hug as Edward walked into the house, tense shoulders making it clear that he was still dealing with everything I'd told him. "It's nothing against your family, Alice, but while I was travelling with the Doctor, I realised that… well, that I don't like who I was becoming when I was with Edward."

"Why not?"

"I was a selfish, needy girl who defined herself by the fact that I was in a relationship with your brother and felt like I was a failure every time he expressed dissatisfaction with our relationship; that's not healthy by any definition," I explained bluntly, wishing that Alice wouldn't look so sad at that statement. "I still consider _you_ a friend, Alice- you might go a bit overboard when it comes to clothes, but that aside you never made me feel inadequate- but as for Edward… after everything I've seen with the Doctor, I can't go back to someone who made me feel like that."

"I… understand," Alice nodded after staring at me in silence for a moment, smiling sympathetically. "Life happens, I guess."

"Especially when it's life with the Doctor," I smiled. "You wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen since I started travelling with him, Alice; the sacred beast of a distant planet, a world where the royal chancellor is a robot gardener who became sentient by accident, a race of flying metal manta rays that devour whole planets down to deserts, a dimension where fairy tales are real…"

"I still can't quite believe that one," Alice noted, a slightly teasing smile on her face as she looked at me. "You really met Snow White and Sleeping Beauty?"

"While staying in Cinderella's palace," I confirmed with a nod, before adopting a teasing smile. "Actually, Snow spent a _lot_ of time with the Doctor on our last night there…"

"He had sex with _Snow White_?" Alice looked at me with an incredulous grin before she became confused. "Hold on; what about her prince?"

"I'm… not entirely sure if she had one," I said, briefly thinking back on my time in Lorindar and finding myself unable to remember if Snow had explicitly mentioned having a lover before her exile. "I mean, there were all these problems with her wider family objecting to her killing her mother, she was exiled from her own kingdom after arranging for the least violent and insane of her extended family to take the throne instead… it was complicated."

"Ah," Alice said, unusually lost for anything better to say.

"Bella?" the Doctor's voice said, the Time Lord walking out of the Cullens' house with Carlisle and Edward on either side of him. "Is everything OK?"

"It's… getting there," I said, smiling briefly at the Doctor's solemn expression; I may not have explicitly told him of my intentions, but clearly we knew each other well enough by now that I almost didn't need to share that with him.

"Good," the Doctor smiled at me. "I'm… that's good."

"And Edward," I said, turning to look at my ex as his father looked sympathetically at him, "I get that it's going to be hard, but you have to at least _try_ to move on."

"I can't-"

"You don't want to try; there's a difference," I countered, not caring that Carlisle and Alice were watching this; I had to make it clear to all the Cullens that I wasn't doing to be Edward's doormat. "You were making all these plans for our future without seriously thinking about what _I_ would want… Edward, I get that you're an emotionally volatile teenager, but you're not helping anyone by trying to emotionally blackmail me."

"I'm not-"

"Maybe not consciously, but even you can't know everything about how your subconscious works," I informed him bluntly. "Edward, I get that you're older, but that doesn't mean you're automatically right whenever we disagree on an issue."

"Never a good thing to start out assuming you're right about everything," the Doctor said solemnly. "One of my best friends had that problem when she started travelling with me; assumed she knew everything about time travel from academic study only until I pointed out that we were caught up in a tricky little time loop where we arrived somewhere after we'd left it and had to go back so that everything happened the right way."

"Excuse me?" Carlisle looked at the Doctor in surprise.

"Just go with the idea that time travel is _very_ complicated and take it from there," I smiled at Carlisle. "Best not to think about it unless you have to… and doesn't that support the idea that you're right?"

"Good point; bad example," the Doctor said, waving a dismissive hand as he looked between the Cullens, his expression contemplative for a moment before he shrugged. "Let's just say that there's been a few times when I thought I had a clear idea about how things stood before my friends gave me a very stern talking-to about when I should or shouldn't do something."

"What kind of-?" Edward began.

"Situations that you _don't_ get to ask about," the Doctor cut the vampire off, glaring at Edward for a moment before turning to smile at Carlisle. "Anyway, enough debates about whether or not age brings wisdom; the important thing is that, if everything goes to plan, you're about to be part of a mass reconstruction of vampire society, so do you think the Volturi will agree to the rules?"

"Some of these aren't going to be easy, Doctor," Carlisle said, looking awkwardly at my friend. "This is… you're asking a lot of our society, you know."

"I only ask a lot because I'd rather not have to resort to the alternatives," the Doctor clarified solemnly. "I appreciate that you have a long history of doing things a certain way, Doctor Cullen, but just because something's always been that way doesn't mean that's the way it always should be."

"There are only a few things that should _never_ change," I put in, smiling at my friend before I took on a more solemn expression. "And… there are somethings that _have_ to change."

"Like you leaving with me?" the Doctor asked, his firm expression shifting to a more solemn one as he looked at me.

"Yeah," I nodded at the Time Lord. "It's been… I've really enjoyed my time with you, Doctor, but… well, we both know that the reason I started travelling with you doesn't apply any more."

"Of course," the Doctor smiled back at me, his eyes tainted with sorrow even as his expression was understanding. "Back to the only thing I can never give any of you; good for you, Bella."

"It's time," I replied, blinking back tears before I walked over to give him a hug. "Thank you for the most incredible time of my life."

"And thank you for being there, Bella," the Doctor smiled back at me. "It's been… you were brilliant."

"We all are," I smiled back at him, remembering Steven and Sarah and everyone the Doctor had worked with at UNIT, as well as all those other companions he'd mentioned to me that we'd never actually met directly. "Take care of yourself, Doctor."

"And you, Bella Swan," the Doctor replied, nodding back at me with a warm smile. "And make sure Emmett and Rosalie get a good surrogate for that embryo."

"We will," Carlisle nodded. "And… thank you for bringing Esme's son back."

"Anything for a friend of Bella's," the Doctor nodded, before shooting a firm glance at Edward. "Just remember to respect her wishes."

"I… I will," Edward said, his whole body tense as though it cost him a great deal to say even that much.

"Good," the Doctor said, looking at me once again. "Well, we have the plans straight at this end, so I'll talk to Geneva and get them to talk to Alistair about all this; he'll vouch for you, you can vouch for the Cullens, you can both ask for Doctor Joanna Harris for her help with perfecting the blood substitute, and everything else will just play out from there."

Not wanting to draw this out more than it had been already, I nodded in agreement at the Doctor's last words. After one last hug, my friend turned around and walked to the back of the Cullens' house, followed by the familiar sound of the TARDIS dematerialising.

_And so ends the greatest chapter of my life_ …

But unlike the last time I had been faced with the permanent end of what I had believed would be the most incredible part of my life, I had chosen this. I didn't know what was to come, but I'd gained so much insight into myself in my time with the Doctor, and he'd already done his best to give me a mission for my immediate future; after that, I was on my own.

"Goodbye, Doctor," I smiled at the sound.

"That's really his name?" Alice looked at me in surprise. "Just 'Doctor'? I thought you were just keeping it secret because he found it embarrassing or something…"

"I think he _has_ a name, but he just doesn't use it any more," I shrugged. "I'm not sure it it's a cultural thing or if he just prefers it, but he's called himself the Doctor for centuries and that's all that everyone needs to call him."

"What kind of man prefers to only be known by a title?" Edward asked.

"A man who doesn't need a name," I told my ex firmly. "He's the Doctor, and he saves people; it doesn't matter what we call him so long as we remember that."

"And that's enough?" Rosalie's voice cut in, prompting me to look up as the rest of the Cullens joined Carlisle, Edward and I outside the house. "You went through time and space with a man known as 'the Doctor' and you never wanted to know his name?"

"Like I said," I looked firmly at Rosalie, "he's the Doctor; we don't need to know anything else."

Under any other circumstances, the idea that I had just made the Cullens fall silent would have been the most incredible thing I'd ever achieved; as it was, it was just another event in the remarkable thing my life had become since I'd met the Doctor.

"Well… who'd want to just have an ordinary name if they could get away with something else?" Emmett shrugged with a smile. "There's something kinda cool about the title thing."

"And that has nothing to do with the fact that he's given you the chance to be a father?" I smiled at Emmett.

"Well… it's an unexpected twist, but I'm not going to complain," the largest Cullen smiled back at me before glancing over at Carlisle, his expression solemn as he placed an arm around Rosalie. "How soon can we do this?"

"You're going to need it within the next year," I noted before Carlisle could reply, smiling as I suddenly remembered my trip to the Black Archive.

"Next year?" Rosalie asked, looking sharply at me. "Why?"

"Because your son has to be at least four years old in 2013," I replied. "I saw a photo of the four of us under a tree in that year."

"You _saw_ him?" the two prospective parents looked at me in shock.

"I saw a photo of the three of us with him; I didn't see him myself."

"And you didn't-?" Edward began.

"I couldn't," I corrected him. "I saw that during this mess when the Doctor met his future self; the TARDIS's telepathic circuits 'tweaked' my mind so that I couldn't consciously remember or talk about anything I'd seen during that experience so that I wouldn't compromise the Doctor's knowledge of his future."

"He met his future?" Jasper looked at me in surprise.

"It's not something he's meant to do often, of course, but apparently it happens when there's a particularly dangerous situation to deal with; invasion from an alternate timeline that's trying to destroy his home planet in the past, stuff like that."

"And you're OK with the fact that his _ship_ affected your mind?" Edward looked pointedly at me.

"It wasn't that much more than what it needed to do so that I could understand everything that any aliens I encountered were saying to me; like I said, the future Doctor had to be sure that I wouldn't say anything that might affect the timeline," I explained. "It's OK for me to talk about it now because I'm not travelling with him any more and we're not likely to see him again until it's an issue, but the risk of me mentioning something when he could hear it… it could have been tricky."

"Guess it's true what they say; you'd have to be mad to understand time-travel," Emmett mused.

"You think that's weird?" I smiled. "At one point I worked with a younger version of the Doctor because some lunatic who called himself 'the Monk' infected the Doctor with a virus that basically erased him from history apart from the earliest point of his life."

"Pardon?" Esme looked at me in surprise, even as she adjusted the sleeping Steven in her arms. "A monk erased your friend from history?"

"I think he just called himself 'the Monk' because he first met the Doctor when he was trying to change the outcome of the Battle of Hastings by posing as a monk in a local abbey; I don't think his people have 'religion' in that sense," I said, before shrugging and continuing the story. "Anyway, long story short, he thought he could make things better if he erased the Doctor from history by infecting him with this virus that erased the Doctor from history, which basically left Earth completely decimated by alien invaders without the Doctor there to stop them, but the Doctor was able to somehow 'trick' the virus into thinking a certain moment in his life was actually his 'birth', and then he sent me to a point where I could meet the past Doctor who still existed, explain the situation to him, and then we were working with Marcus to get back to the TARDIS and track the attack back to the source-"

"You… worked with Marcus?" Carlisle looked at me in surprise.

"It was a version of him from an alternate timeline where humanity had basically been nothing more than the universe's punching bag for centuries as so many different aliens tried to claim Earth for themselves; he… was different then," I said, lost for anything better to say as I remembered the Marcus who had died to save the Doctor, Steven and I from the Sontarans.

"And what was all that stuff about meeting Patient Zero?" Emmett asked.

"Complicated."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

I might be back in Forks, but there were still some things I was never going to tell the Cullens; even if any of them understood why I'd had to do it, I wasn't ready to get into a debate about temporal mechanics and why the Doctor and I couldn't have prevented their breed of vampire from coming into existence.

For the moment, I was going to spend some time catching up with old friends, establishing our new relationship dynamic now that I wasn't going to be joining their 'family' in either of the senses that we'd previously believed I would.

I would be an aunt-like figure to Steven, as well as to Emmett and Rosalie's unnamed son, and I would try to re-establish my old friendship with Alice and the others, but as far as things with Edward would unfold in the future…

I'd see how things unfolded, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of change, but for the moment, I was going to set the rules myself.


	12. The Parting of the Ways

The following morning, as I stood in the meadow that I had long used for my old meetings with Edward, I once again found myself wondering about the plans I'd set in motion for my future.

Even if I'd started making some tentative plans for this next stage of my life as soon as we left the Volturi, I was actually amazed at how easily things had fallen into place. I'd had to ask Alice for help finding the phone number I was looking for, but even with my new partial immunity to her gift, it had been simple enough to make contact with the now-retired Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and explain the situation to him. The Doctor's old friend hadn't been completely comfortable with the notion that vampires were real, but once I'd explained to him that the Doctor had every faith that these vampires could be reasoned with if given the opportunity, he had agreed to the Time Lord's proposal to make arrangements to develop a blood substitute to treat their hunger. He admitted that he was going to take some time to set the stage for this particular plan before anyone introduced it to UNIT's superiors, but he had enough contacts in the main organisation to know who he could talk to in order to make the initial steps go smoothly.

The Cullens were naturally unnerved at the prospect of their entire society being upended to the degree that this plan involved, but at the same time none of them had explicitly rejected anything I'd come up with when making the initial plans. Carlisle had even volunteered his services in working on the blood substitute once the appropriate scientists had been brought into the secret; haematology had never been one of the branches of science the Cullens had thought about taking themselves due to the risk of losing control in class, but the relevant members of the family were all confident that they could grasp what was needed in a controlled environment with 'teachers' who knew who and what they were. As an initial gesture of good faith, some of the Doctor's UNIT contacts had also arranged the necessary paperwork for Esme to officially 'adopt' Steven (I would have preferred to get Sarah Jane Smith's help for that one, but had soon reminded myself that she wouldn't have even met me yet by this point in her life), and they had also agreed to help Carlisle find a suitable surrogate for Rosalie and Emmett's unborn child.

I couldn't tell Charlie what I had planned for my future, of course, but the Brigadier had assured me that they would work on an appropriate cover story to justify my future job before my graduation. Provisionally, they were working on giving me an appropriate-sounding internship once I graduated that would lead me to a public posting in the U.N. that would serve as my cover when I was working with the vampires, but for the moment, since they were still just sorting out the alternative food source, the Brigadier had assured me that they would keep everything as discreet as possible until I was ready to take my new position.

All in all, I was getting off to a good start in my new role before I was even officially hired for the job, which meant that the only person left for me to tell about my imminent future was my former best friend. Edward wasn't entirely comfortable about this part of my plan, but he had accepted that I was responsible for my own actions even if he still didn't seem like he was completely resigned to the fact that we were going to stay separate.

Just as I was starting to wonder when Jacob was going to arrive, there was a brief flurry of movement off to the side of the meadow, and then Jacob walked in, dressed in his usual post-transformation clothing of cut-off shorts.

"Hey," he smiled at me. "You're here? Alone?"

"That's… what I wanted to talk to you about," I said, giving Jacob an awkward smile, guessing what he was thinking and wanting to cut it short before it went any further. "I thought you should know… Edward and I aren't together."

"Really?" Jacob looked at me with a broadening grin. "That's-"

" _But_ ," I held up a hand, cutting him off as I looked at my friend with a more solemn expression, "I'm just telling you so you know where things stand; it doesn't mean that _we're_ … getting together."

"What?" Jacob said, his mood shifting as I cut off his train of thought. "But I-"

"I broke up with Edward for reasons that have nothing to do with him being a vampire and everything to do with our relationship not being healthy," I explained, keeping my gaze firm as I explained my position to my friend; what I was about to tell Jacob would be hard for him to hear, but it was best to get the matter over with now. "To be frank, both of you have control issues based on your own preconceptions about how vampires should be, and the end result is that you just dragged me into your own warped issues that don't have any real weight behind them but the fact that you're speciest."

"Speciest?"

"As I said before, you're not _racist_ because you and Edward technically are different species, but you're making snap judgements based on the fact that you believe every member of Edward's species is the same; that's prejudice however you look at it."

"They _are_ dangerous, Bella-!"

"And so are you!" I countered; even if Edward and Jacob had issues to overcome, they were still good people who just needed to acknowledge their problems. "I learned many things in my time with the Doctor, Jacob, and one of the most important things I learned is that you can't just people because of what they _might_ do or we should just kill everyone-"

"Oh, now you're taking advice from some… some…" Jacob began, only for his expression to falter as he realised both what he was saying and how I was looking at him.

"You see?" I said, calming myself down even as I reminded myself to take no satisfaction from the knowledge that Jacob had understood the point I was trying to make. "You're even judging the _Doctor_ because he isn't human; how is that fair? He hasn't even _done_ anything to you!"

"…Fine," Jacob sighed, looking at me in grim resignation. "So… what are you doing with yourself?"

"I've actually got a few plans," I smiled. "The Doctor works with a special branch of the U.N. who deal with alien incursions-"

"Hold on; the _U.N._ work _with_ an alien to _fight_ aliens?"

"My point exactly; it's not always black and white between humans and non-humans, Jacob," I told him firmly. "The point is that the Doctor and I worked with them while I was travelling with him, and they're going to help me and the Cullens work out a blood substitute to give some vampires a chance to do something other than kill for food-"

"Excuse me?" Jacob cut me off incredulously. "You're going to _help_ vampires?"

"Like I said, they're not automatically bad people just because they've got an unfortunate appetite, Jacob; I am _going_ to help these people!"

"They're not people-!"

"I've met monsters, Jacob; the Cullens are anything _but_ monsters, and how many other vampires are out there hunting humans just because they can't stand the taste of the only other viable alternative?"

"You can't do this-!"

For a moment, as Jacob began to transform with a snarl on his face, I anxiously wondered what I could do now that I'd unintentionally pushed him this far, but then the part-man-part-wolf fell to the ground, roaring in pain as he clutched at his ears while reverting to human form, until his head jerked back and he collapsed to the ground.

I was briefly confused at what had just happened, but then I looked up and smiled as I saw the Doctor standing further off in the forest, his right hand under his coat in a manner that made it clear he was just putting the sonic screwdriver away.

I was about to move towards him to thank him for stopping Jacob- hopefully my friend would stay out of it long enough for me to get back to civilisation where he'd be more inclined to make an effort to stay in control of himself- but then I paused as I registered his manner, the Time Lord looking at me with a solemn stare that put me in mind of the Monk as he took me, Steven and the Doctor's first incarnation away in his TARDIS.

_No…_ I thought to myself, as the Doctor gave me a final nod and turned around to head back into the woods, clearly heading for wherever he'd left the TARDIS.

Unless I'd completely misread the situation, the Doctor was preparing to die.

And based on everything the Eleventh Doctor had told me during that mess with the Zygons, that meant he was about to regenerate into his last incarnation…

I thought about running after the Doctor, but told myself not to bother; if the Doctor wasn't close enough to talk to me now, even if he was here to help, that was clearly his choice.

"Goodbye, Doctor," I said at last, nodding solemnly in the direction that my friend had walked off in.

He'd done so much for the world, he'd just saved me one last time, and now I was never going to see him again (even if he'd see me again from his perspective).

All I could do now was dedicate myself to the goal he'd given me and hope that I could live up to his expectations.


End file.
